Stumped

I have never tasted a wine so complex of flavors that I am still stumped with a food match to enhance the food or the wine. The grape is Primativo, the Italian parent of California Zinfandel. Many of today's winemakers in Italy try to emulate California style Zinfandel with their Primativos. Nice wins with a steak or red sauce pasta or pizza, but you would never ever consider them more than just nice wines. This is DIFFERENT> very different.
At first sip, I was leaning to a sweet vermouth, but the wine is not sweet. The amazing aromas and flaovrs or wild herbs and berries permeates through the nose and palate up into the brain. This is one amazing wine. but I still dont know what it works with. The wine is so fantastic it doesn't need food, but I want to find something for food fun. It has to be out there.
The wine retails for $19.99. The few customers that have already tried it are agog over it. I like the word agog.
You have never ever had a wine like this. I am going to try to clean out the supplier ASAP!
Meanwhle, I will be drinking this wine a lot trying to find the perfect, heck just a good match for it.

Upstate NY Riesling

If the title intrigued you than the wine will too. Red Newt Cellars 2008 Riesling is to Germany was Oz is to Kansas. You will get no typical apply-fuel like smells nor flavors to this NYState Riesling. You will get some sweetness, but not too much and an unmistakable sensation of tangerine. Now I know there are no citrus trees in upstate NY, so you can imagine this flavor surprised me. It has been a fun wine to drink during the summer when I have got tired of New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs. The hint of sweetness with the tangerine flavor has been tasting delicious with a varitey of summer salads too.

Cal Cab

Bang for the buck is always good. The Alexander Valley Vineyards 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon is yummy bang for the buck at $19.99. It has all the characteristics most people look for in a high quality Cab. Nice, rich dark fruit, with some tasty spice notes and a smooth mouthfeel, what's not to love. Delicious as a summer barbque red, this will enhance the thickest of steaks, the coolest of cole slaws and the mountain of potato salads served all summer long. And it's only $19.99. Don't feel like a full bottle? It is also available in half bottles for $10.99 a bottle, along with its brother and sister a Merlot and a Chardonnay in the halves too.

Triples

Tried three wines the other night and they were all fabulous and different.

The Muga Rioja 2005 Especial was awesome. A red wine that was slow to open up, but after and hour or two of air time, it was elegant and smooth and rich and fruity and smokey, but not as smokey as the last wine. As nice as it was, it needs more years in the bottle to develop more complexity of flavors. It was the best with the smoked pork ribs. Retail is about 50.

The Selvanova Aglianico from southern Italy was the steal of the night at $19.99 a bottle. This wine has a little cult following at the store, but I admit, I hadn't tasted it in a long time. Don't worry, I bought everything the wholesaler had left in Massachusetts. Worry, he only had 3 cases left and one of the gentlemen who tasted the wine with me the other night, took one of them. Aglianico is the best red grape in southern Italy. It yields a wine that has southern Italian fruit to compliment a red sauce dish, yet enough spice and structure to stand up to northern Italian cuisine. It was delicious with no breathing time at all, and held its flavors thru the night.
I repeat, a steal, but not much left.

Finally, Vacqueras is a town in the Rhone Valley of France the until a change in the wine laws could only be labeled as Cotes du Rhone Villages. This 2007 vintage Vacqueras at $29.99 is expensive for any red wine from this town, but this one is more than worth it. Unfortunately, this was a cradle robbing event. Although the wine was delicious, you know it is only gonna get better the longer you can wait and leave it alone in the cellar. How long? It was so good, I will re-evaluate it this holiday season, but I have lots. A couple of years should metamorphasize this wine from wonderful to SPECTACULAR! Wafts of dried red fruit without sweetness in combination with so much basalm notes I thought I was lumberjacking in Maine. This is the wine that answers the oft asked queston "Bob, I wanna buy a wine that is gonna taste like a hundred bucks in a few years but I dont want to spend that much, what do you have?" This is it! I just loved sipping this the entire evening, food was secondary. Wine is tooooo good.

Classic Chianti

Villa Rosa Chianti Classico 2007 for $19.99 is textbook delicious. You will not mistake this wine for anything but a Chianti. Good rich sour cherry flavors, in a smooth textured wine offset by just enough tannins to handle a porterhouse on the grill perfectly. If you don't feel like steak, remove the backbone from a Cornish game hen, marinate the rest of the bird in Italian dressing for an hour and grill. Serve rosemary scented white beans with plenty of high quality EVOO on the side. This is not a big estate in Tuscany and I hope I bought enough to make it thru the holidays.

It's a triple!

Sanguineto is a tiny, but spectacular winery in the sleepy town of Montepulciano in Tuscany. Do not confuse it with the grape Montepulciano, none is grown in this town, and do not confuse it with the more famous town of Montalcino, also in Tuscany. Don't worry, this is the single most confusing thing in Italian red wine, everyone gets it wrong.

Sanguineto is run by two women sharing a singular passion to make great wine in tiny amounts and keep the price reasonable. Just arrived at the store are the Rosso di Montepulciano 2008, the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2007 and the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Riserva 2003. Prices are $19.99, 34.99 and $49.99 respectively.

The main variety of grape for these yummy steak enhancing reds is Prugnolo Gentile, a strain of Sangiovese. Treat them like a Chianti and you will do fine. Open a half hour before serving with beef or lamb or game. One of the owners is a huntress. So I really know this goes with game, especially boar. The wine is not boring, wonderful complexity with a hint of sour cherry make for a classic Tuscan, just like white beans.

It's over!

July 28th is the climatalogical hottest day of the year. It starts getting cooler for the next six months. Historically August is the month of vacation in France. Therefore now is the time to blog about the summer sidewalk cafe' wine of Paris.

Muscadet is the wine of summer in Paris. It should be inexpensive, light, fresh, dry, fruity and minerally. I like good Muscadet....I am persnickety about it though.

For the first time in about 10 years I have bought a Muscadet. For $11.99 you can get great Muscadet. Michel Delhommeau 2009 Muscadet Sevre et Maine, Sur Lie, St. Vincent pleases persnickety people. Go grab your favorite ice bucket, plop a bottle in the bucket, fill the bucket with ice, go shuck some oysters and set up your own backyard Parisian cafe. Put some scratchy Edith Piaf records on the turntable and lament the DeGaulle years.

Oh, if you can't find my Muscadet, it's important to find as much similar info on the label as I have previously printed. Muscadet is the grape, Sevre et Maine is the best region, and Sur Lie means the wine was aged on the lees, sediment, for months, to give it extra flavor. St. Vincent in this case will be hard to find. I believe it is the vineyard site, but I am not sure. Yes, 2009 is the most important info on the label.

Wine World Cup

It's Spain vs. Netherlands, but there is no wine from the Dutch, well I have never tasted one, but the Dutch did establish winemaking in South Africa, the home country for the World Cup so with all due respect to an ice-cold Heineken, I pick some wines.

If Spain wins, it's time to crack open a bottle of Artadi's top Rioja made from Tempranillo grape. It tastes like LaTache from France and it's only, gulp, $300 a bottle. No, not the most expensive wine from Spain, but I think it is the best. I will serve it with pan seared steak with sauteed wild mushrooms and a herb infused risotto. I only get one 6-pack of this wine and only in great years.

For a Netherlands victory, I will cross sports and serve Ernie Els top wine. Also not the most expensive wine from its country at $90 a bottle, this wine tastes like a cross-breed between top of the line Bordeaux and a California Meritage. The vegetables remain the same but I would serve grilled lamb chops, the meatier kidney ones not the rib chops. I have two six-packs of this wine.

Don't tell my brother about my plans, he would not be happy with me drinking all the profits.

Wicked Happy

The new batch of 2007 Juan Gil Monastrell from Jumilla Spain is in and it is spectacular again!

It has been over 2 months since we last had a bottle to sell of the best wine to have with a steak we have tasted in years. This powerful, yet elegant wine is flawless and only $19.99 a bottle. If you have not tried this wine and you like red wine run into the store and grab some.

How good is this wine? In March another Spanish winemaker was in the store. His wines were wicked good, but wicked expensive. As he was walking out of the store, he stopped pointed at the display of Juan Gil and begrudingly commented, "Great Wine"

This will sell fast, the wholesaler believes he has enough for the summer. Let's hope so.

Wine Value

I put on a wine tasting for a local service group. Two whites and two reds were served that I picked for easy to taste differences and some great values.

The tasting started with the Indaba Chenin Blanc 2009. I have blogged about it before and it still the best tasting wine for summer for all foods for under $10.

Second in the tasting was the 2009 Sauvignon Blanc from Sole Beech of New Zealand. Also under $10 a bottle, the classic smell and flavor of grapefruit zest leapt out of the glass so easily that ever taster in the group recognized it. Great summer seafood wine.

The Cono Sur Carmenere was spectacular again. Previously blogged here, the taste of the chocolate, the smoothness and the sweet oak flavors combined in the wine to make just a juicy drink. I would like this with spicy hot jalapeno seasoned foods.

Back to South Africa for the final wine and Indaba again, but this time the red Shiraz was stunning for under $10 a bottle. Easy to find smells of smoke, bacon and spice should encourage you to serve this with your next barbque.

From the cellar

I have a sweet tooth. I love well made sweet wines. I buy too many for the store and myself.

Tonight I met up with some friends for some quahogs done Portugese style, and pork tenderloin with mango salsa, ricotta polenta and garlic broccoli. I don't do dessert.

My friends, who were enjoying a delicious homemade cheesecake without any topping, went crazy over a half bottle of 1998 Kracher #4 Welschriesling Trockenbeerenauslese. It displayed the typical honey-apricot flavors but but but, it had amazing brown spice flavors, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove, as well as drying acidity that made the wine taste not too sweet. It was a head slapper and a thigh banger. For those of you that don't know me and since this is on the internet so for the billions of you that don't know me, I have this habit of either slapping my head or banging on my thighs when I get excited about a great wine and/or a great wine and food pairing. This was a double.

New Vintage

A little over a month ago, I raved about a red wine from Navarra, Spain made with the Garnacha grape, the 2007 Artazuri. Once the staff and I tried it, we bought all we could find in Massachusetts, and it sold out of the store in weeks. This week the rep brought us in the 2008 to taste. It's good but different. It shows more fruit and less spice and weight. Still a good wine and probably even better with burgers and dogs than the 2007. The price is still $12.99 a bottle and you will get more than your moneys worth each time. Perhaps with another six months of time in the bottle, it will develop some more weight and spice. In the meantime, it's a fun wine to bring to someone's barbque.

The Other Argentine Wine

Just about everyone knows that Argentina produces great Malbec. Malbec is a variety of grape that originated in France but something in the climate and soil make the Malbec excel in Argentina. Hottest red grape out there. We just found a fabulous Malbec from Ben Marco for $19.99 a bottle. Sizzle up a steak and serve it, great match. But...

There is a grape from north-central Italy named Bonarda. Makes an ok but not great red dinner wine. The same grape grown in Argentina makes a rich complex tasting red wine. Much better than what you can get from Italy at the same price. Spend $11.99 for a bottle of Santa Hermida and serve it with the same steak. Delicious. Not as rich as the Malbec, but the Bonarda has much more complex aromas and flavors. Makes the steak taste better.

Yay, Newton

What goes up must come down.

The Euro has lost a lot of its value against the dollar in the past few months. Bad news for exports, but good news for imported wine. One of my most favorite wines in the world, I refused to buy at the holiday's based on price, not on quality. I just couldn't justify $100 a bottle for it. But today, I contracted to buy a bunch of Michele Castellani Amarone Stelle. This wine is only made in the best years. It is a red wine that is very strong with flavors of ripe dark fruit, earthy foresty, and well, just think of a mouthful of all the different flavors of jelly beans in your mouth at once. The price dropped 20 % to $ 80 a bottle. I am happy at this price. The wine is too strongly flavored to go with normal food. A Gorgonzola cream sauce on red meat or pasta works perfectly. Only thing is, this wine won't be in for a month, and you shouldn't drink it till the frost is on the pumpkin or the end of hurricane season,whichever comes later. In other words, wait til it is cold outside, the wine will warm you up.

Victory

South Africa beat France today in the World Cup.

South Africa has been beating France in wine for years.

Tonight I tasted the 2008 vintage of Glen Carlou Chardonnay from South Africa. It sells in the states for $14.99 a bottle. It is delicious. Balanced fruit, oak and acidity that would cost twice the amount if it was from France. Richer than a Macon/Pouilly Fuisse, it not quite as rich as a Meursault. Just a good drink. As well as a cocktail wine, there is enough stuffing and acid for this wine to be a worker with food. I am thinking more chicken and pork rather than fish. Unless it is a highly seasoned fish. Cream, butter sauce is optional.

Glen Carlou is in the Paarl region of South Africa. The estate has a reported good place to eat, I did not eat there when I last visited, but the view is wonderful. I tasted on the deck that overlooked a ridge of mountains that gave credence to "purple mountains majesty above the fruited plane." In addition Glen Carlou is owned by Hess of Switzerland. Hess is one of the great modern art collectors in the world. The gallery there is everchanging and is even enjoyed by me, a modern art boor.

Fathers Day Wine

Here's a dilemna most people don't have. It's Fathers Day, I picked king crab legs with butter and Old Bay, cole slaw and stuffed quahogs. And the wine was? I couldn't make up my mind. I wanted something fresh but with bottle age. Minerally and fruity. Light and rich. Arghhh.

Rummage, pick, poke, lift and separate the wine cellar until VOILA

2002 Tiefenbrunner Feldmarschal Muller-Thurgau from Italy. It was perfect. So if you need a wine for showing off, goes great with steamed lobster or crab and costs about $40 a bottle, I have about a half dozen bottles left. And the race is on. Will you buy them before I drink them? They cannot get any better than they are this summer!

Muller-Thurgau is a grape developed over 100 years ago by Professor Muller of Thurgau Switzerland. It is planted extensively in Germany and used to make good but not great quality table wine. In the cooler climate of the Alps the grape makes wonderful dry white dinner wine, that needs at least 5 years of age to be drinkable. This wine is from one of the highest vineyard sites in the Italian Alps. I need to order more now for a lobster in 2015.

Fore!

South African golfer Ernie Els is the best celebrity wine estate owner in the world. Well the Rothschilds are celebrities but they have been wine owners for so long that they are more famous for their wines than the original banking business. But I digress.

Ernie has hired a crackerjack team to make wine from his estate and his label. The wines with his name on it are very expensive and very good. Just down the hill from his named estate is another property he owns that has a fab restaurant run by another Els, no relation. This winery is Guardian Peak. I have mentioned in an earlier blog about the best wine from the estate, SMG, that retails for $24.99 a bottle and is sold out awaiting the next vintage from South Africa. Recently I found another blended wine from Guardian Peak named Frontier. This yummy blend is from Cabernet, Syrah and Merlot and retails for $14.99 a bottle. This wine is delicious now for a barbque, but has enough tannins to improve for a couple of years in the cellar. Crowd pleaser and gourmet pleaser for reasonable money. Sounds like a double eagle. Golf reference, 3 under par on one hole.

Garagista Extrordinaire

Four to six times a year I am lucky to have the best and most knowledgeable Italian wine palette visit me at the store and we taste wines together. Jeannie Rogers is the former co-owner of Il Capriccio in Waltham, Ma. and now co-owner of the tiny but spectacular wine import firm Adonna Imports. She represents her friends in Italy that just happen to make some of the most amazing wines in the world. The smallest of these great producers is Rovi. He is so tiny, he doesn't have a garage so he uses his neighbors garage to make his hand-picked wines. I am very lucky to get at least one 6 pack of his wines. Sometimes I get more, but not always. His wines are not cheap, $45-60 a bottle. His wines need to age a year or two minimum to show off their greatness. Right now I have two wines from him. The local red grape Marzemino, sort of a cross between a Rhone and a Burgundy, but no description can do it justice I would serve with a ham dinner. The other is a Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. This wine needs to cellar two more years, but already you can taste amazing complexities of flavors that scream to be served with lamb or game meat. You can taste the wildness of the forest in the wine.

If you cannot leave these wines in your cellar for at least a year, don't buy them. If you have the patience, you will be rewarded.

Shhhhhh again

One of my favorite sleeper wines of California is the Ferrari-Carano Sienna. The 2007 is in the store, but not for long, at $29.99 a bottle. I tasted a bottle last night with some steak tips. The wine was a PERFECT match. I called the wholesaler first thing this morning and just like a Sam Jones bank shot, I was too late. You have to be over 50 to know the provenance of that reference. Anyway, Sienna is a Sangiovese blend from California. Think of a super-Tuscan around $100 a bottle for the same quality. This is a wine, if you can't get some from me, you really should try and find some. It's that wonderful with a steak on the grill.

Oh and Jeff, I have put a couple of bottles away for you for your bride. Ciao.

Name that wine

There is a family of South African wines you can get in the US but not in South Africa. Sounds silly, but true. The Jardin wines of South Africa are fabulous and only available in the US. The reason? The family name is on the label in South Africa and the family name is Jordan, no relation to the California Jordan's but that is way the name is changed here in the US.

Jardin best Chardonnay is a barrel selection of all their Chardonnay. It is called Nine Yards Chardonnay, because it is the whole nine yards. Ok, I just made that up, I don't know why its called Nine Yards. What I do know that another South African winery has joined the style of California and France to make a delicious wine. The 2005 vintage is $29.99 a bottle. Not a typo, 2005! Most Cal Chards are long gone by 5 years of age, this one is just starting to peak. Noticeable oak in harmony with great fruit flavors, crisp acidity and some mellow yellow color are evident in this wine. Closer in style to a Meursault with some hints of hazelnut, you can serve this wine with or without food. I pick the food because this allows the wine to show more versatility. There is also a 2003 Cabernet available from Jardin, that is equally as yummy and has the one thing a winemaker cannot create, bottle age and the flavors that come with it.

Tempranillo

The red grape of Spain is Tempranillo. It may be the most versatile red grape in the world. I have tried some that taste like Pinot Noir,or Cabernet Sauvignon and even one wine tasted like, gulp, Coca Cola.

Tempranillo is magical with grilled, wood or gas, foods. The old 1+1=3. Food makes the wine taste better and wine makes the food taste better. The chicken and the egg come at the same time.

Two reasonably priced and good quality Tempranillos are the Ramon Bilbao from the Rioja region, and the Raimat from the Costieres del Segre region of Spain. Rioja is the most famous region of Spain and Tempranillo is king there. Bilbao produces textbook Tempranillo, fruity, dry, smokey, earthy and a middleweight, perfect for outdoor dining. Costieres del Segre is east of Rioja, equally mountainous, dry and hot. The wine has a tiny bit more fruitiness than the Rioja, but it is not a guarantee that all from Segre are fruitier than Rioja.

A side story from Segre. I visited there in 2002. The estate we visited was established by railroad barons of the late 1800's. But the history of the estate goes way way back. It was blazing hot and windy on the day we visited. Everything was dry and dusty. Except these straight as an arrow lines of trees that crisscrossed the propery as far as I could see. Giant fields of grapes and vegetables were enclosed by these trees. Upon commenting on the greeness of the trees in such an arid area, I was encouraged to walk over to the trees. Humongous roots were coming out of the trees and snaking into, ice-cold water from melting snows of the Pyranees brought to the property by Roman aquaducts 2000 years old. And still working. That night we had spring lamb cooked over wood fires for a spectacular way to enjoy Tempranillo and grilled meat.

Blue Moon

The blue moon occurs when there are 2 full moons in one calendar month. The rarest is when it happens in February. I don't know how often it happens, my guess is once in two and a half years for any month. Hopefully, not once in 10 years. But then Mother Nature can be fickle.

In 1996 a red wine made from the Bonarda grape in north central Italy was made. Zaffo was its name-o. Mother Nature conspired with the winemaker in 2006 to make Zaffo once again. We waited impatiently for 10 years, and what do we get?

A wine that needs to age for 10 years to show its greatness.

Zaffo is the name of the big black horse on the label. He was a working horse, used to pull the plow in this classic vineyard.

If you even think about tasting this wine now you will be dissappointed. If you know how to taste through massive but ripe tannins you will recognize how great this wine will be. If you are not familiar with massive but ripe tannins, you will hate the wine. Either of you will love the wine in 5 years, but if you can store it properly and wait the full ten years, you will learn the true meaning of life, well not life, but why some wines need to age.

I aye eye

I Clivi 2007 Collio Malvasia at $19.99 a bottle is the perfect summer dry white dinner wine. Or you can guzzle it.

Rich ripe hints of peach and spice and citrus and flowers and great mouthfeel. When I sampled it, I gave the rep and goofy smile and refused to spit it out. It was that yum. I believe it will stand up to salads, swim well with fish, and work well with grilled thingies.

I Clivi is the winery, Collio is the region so far north and east in Italy that you are practically in some Slavic country. The churches up here have onion domes. Malvasia is the name of the grape. With the proximity to some former part of Yugoslavia, I betcha this is great with ham and pork dishes come the fall. But I expect all of it to be gone this summer. It is just too good for the money.

Soccer, Futbol, wines

Yeah yeah yeah, the World Cup will be in South Africa for the next month. Big Deal.

One of the oldest and best wineries in South Africa is Rust en Vrede. Their flagship wine, among many, is the Estate wine. A blend of roughly 60 Cabernet Sauvignon, 30 Shiraz and 10 Merlot, this complex and flavorful wine was tasty with tonight's steak. In comparing the 2003 vs. 2004, the 03 was softer and easier to drink and enjoy tonight. The 04 had much more tannic structure and will continue to develop over the next 5 years. Each at $44.99, drink the 03, cellar the 04.

Really want to try this wine again with a lamb dinner.

3 DeTrafford

One of the best winemakers and smallest is De Trafford in the "Golden Triangle" of Stellenbosch South Africa.

Tiny, with only 3000 cases made, and meticulous and enormous quality for the price, David De Trafford makes some of the best bang for the buck wines in the world. Tonight I tried 3: Caberent Sauvignon, that most in my party thought was great Bordeaux even after they saw the label, the Blueprint Shiraz, generally thought to be not as good, but was amazing with the barbqued ribs and his dessert wine the Vin de Paille aka Straw Wine, which I am shocked to the flavor and quality.

Each of these wines is between 40 and 50 a bottle, the dessert wine is $44.99 a half bottle. World class wines that will continue to benefit from aging, but are truly delicious right now.

One, two three, RED NIGHT

Wicked thunderstorms with wind and rain last night brought in some nice cool dry Canadian air. Windows are open, breeze is blowin' and the grill is goin'. The night is perfect for red.

Grilled some chicken kielbasi, if I was 20 years younger it would have been pork, ahhh, age, and drank the Sanguineto Rosso di Montepulciano 2007. Montepulciano IS the most confusing wine in Italy. The most prolific red grape in Italy is Montepulciano, except that it doesn't grow in the TOWN of Montepulciano. The town is in Tuscany and the grape Prugnolo Gentile is grown there. The grape is a relative of the Sangiovese, the grape of Chianti and Montalcino. Prugnolo Gentile has that slight sour cherry flavor that is perfect with grilled sausages. The Sanguineto is made by two sisters that run the farm by themselves. Only tiny amounts of the wine come into the USA and I am lucky to be on their list. The wine retails for $19.99. Open the bottle at least a half hour before serving. Perfect timing is to open the wine and then light the grill.

If you want a splurge bottle the sisters also make in more limited quantities a Vino Nobile de Montepulciano at $34.99 a bottle. This wine is aged one more year in wood barrels and needs a few more years in the cellar to show off its best flavors. And then in miniscule quantities and only in the best of the best years, they make a Vino Nobile de Montepulciano Riserva. Aged another extra year in wood and requires more years in the cellar. I only have one case of this, a measly 12 bottles at $49.99 a bottle, but you have to ask. I don't display it.

OOOh, now that would be a fun trio to bring to a tasting. And informative too.

Bargain Cabernet Sauvignon

Shhhhh.

A rep brought in a sample of 2009 Alto Sur, not to be confused with Cono Sur, Cabernet Sauvignon and we sell it for $11.99 a bottle. After I tried it and my eyes did the cartoon bug-out, I sampled Linda with it and she couldn't believe the price to quality ratio either. New rep, will keep him for a while. We bought plenty, enough to get us to the fall, hopefully.

Foodable and guzzleable.

More Riesling Dry

German wine laws change more often than a model at a fashion show.

If you are a lover of the greatest German dry Rieslings you must learn the words Erstes Gewachs. Roughly translated to First Growth, wine with these words on the label, must be from the best vineyard sites and produced in the highest standards and be dry. They are not cheap, but when compared to what you would pay for First Growth French wine, these are a steal.

At $44.99 a bottle the 2006 Schloss Reinhartshausen Erbach Schlossberg monopole, (they have a monopoly on this vineyard, sorta like owning Park Place and Boardwalk)Riesling Erstes Gewachs. Another mouthful of words the are overridden by the mouthful of flavors you get when you drink the wine. This is too good for summer quaffing. Personally, I would wait for the fall to show this wine at its best, root veggies, roast of pork or chicken or even some game. This is super special occasion wine. I get very little of them, and I am very susceptable to drinking them. Not many left. And yes, you can blame me.

My ship has come in from Germany

I love Riesling, bone dry to super sweet and everywhere in between I love Riesling. It surprises many people to see the word dry with Riesling. Good. More for me and it keeps the prices down. A couple of months ago a rep brought in some German wines for me to taste and offer an opinion on. 3 stunk, 3 were very good and one was spectacular.

The spectacular one was a dry Riesling! The St. Nikolaus Hospital Bernkastler Badstube Rieslilng Hochgewachs Trocken for $19.99 a bottle is personal perfection . Sorry about the long name but if you ask for the St. Nick wine, I will get it for you. The flavor of this wine is wonderful with pork dishes, fresh water fish, salmon and trout especially and just watching the sunset. The intensity of the aroma, the crispness of the wine and the lovely color make me very happy.

Happy is good.

Bonus note.

Just drank another bottle with my bridge partners. It was freakin awesome. Subtle flavors of melon and pineapple with a zip of spritz in the wine. Even the bridge guys were oohing and ahhhing.

New Zealnd Trio

New Zealand makes some wonderful Sauvignon Blancs. They come in two styles. Think Picasso and Rembrandt. One style, the style I dont like, is reminiscent of jalapeno pepper flavor in the wine without the heat. Yuck.

The other style, the good one, starts off with the wine tasting like tropical fruit, but before you can swallow, the wine changes into freshly grated grapefruit zest flavor. It rock all summer long and citrus works with fish.

My 3 favorites are Sole Beech $9.99, Oyster Bay $13.99 and Seresin $24.99, The difference between them, think 2% milk, milk and half and half. So save the Seresin for a serious summer meal. The others are guzzable.

Hotter still

There is only one white wine that I will drink on a day so hot,not only you cannot walk on the sand, but also fry the egg on the hood of the car. So hot, your underwear feels like flypaper and your shoes stick to the floor five steps after you walk into the beer chest. And the wine is cheap.

Gazela Vinho Verde at 2 for $10 is the cafe wine of Lisbon and all other Portugese beaches, sailboats and pools. It is low in alcohol. it is snappy like a green apple, it is slightly fizzy like some people I know and it can be and should be served ICE cold. A tuna sandwich overpowers it, I grilled swordfish is too much, but when the weather is too hot, it is the wine of the thermometer.

A trick to make the wine colder. Add salt to the water and ice in the bucket with the wine. Wont make your lips turn blue, but makes the wine colder.

Watermelon salad part 2

It was hot the other night. And Humid. I wanted cold wine. I knew I was having watermelon salad. I grabbed the wrong bottle out of the cooler. Great mistake.

I dont really like the grape Viognier. It is a white grape native to the Rhone Valley of France. The trade has been trying to talk up the grape for over 20 years. I don't get it. I keep one of two in the store just to have them. People ask for them, I got them, but I try to turn them to other wines.... until now.

Peirano Estate in Lodi California made an unbelievably delicious Viognier in 2007. Fruit flavors with hints of spice, that are different from any other white grape I know. Delicious and only $12.99. And it goes with my favorite watermelon salad, and it went with the ribs too, and the whole red snapper with jambalaya stuffing. Nice to find a summer white that can stand up to the whole meal, spicey fruity, smokey, and all the other flavors of summer.

Funky and fabulous.

Crabby Cook

A long time friend, great gastronome and blogger on hiatus, Crabby Cook, texted me all agog from entertaining friends in the back yard and getting unanamous approval for Mulderbosch Rose of Cabernet as the ultimate summer wine. So I had to retest it.

I liked it so much when I first tried it in winter, I bought it. I like it more now. Dry rose with a brilliant color of dark rose, the essence of both cherry and strawberry are subtle but noticeable in the wine. I served it chilled with some very nice barbqued ribs and it was a good match, but I loved it with a wild salad of watermelon, feta, onion, cucumber, mint, parsley, balsamic and a touch of EVOO. It's hard to find any wine that works with a salad, but this salad? WOW.

Oh, I LOVE this salad.

Ketchup time again

This writing thing can be time consuming, interfering, and fun. Having missed a few too many now, tonight I play catch up. So the first wine tonight is a wine that is yummy with ketchup covered cuisine. Since we eat a lot of this style of cuisine, you will see quite a few of these wines through the summer.
Tenuta Migliavacca is the name of the winery and the grape is Freisa. I pronounce Freisa as Muhammad Ali would pronounce Joe Frazier's name. It works. Check the tape. Anyway Freisa is another of the lesser known grapes of the great Piedmont region of northwest Italy. Freisa produces a wine that is light in color, light in flavor with some noticeable fruitiness and a bit of spritz, that slightly effervescent sensation that works well with a slight chill to the wine. So you get the chill for hot days, the red to go with ketchup, the lower alcohol to stay awake, and a nice flavor with a reasonable price. $14.99 a bottle.
Nice wine if you are in the mood for something different.

Pinot Grigio

Sadly, I will be discontinuing Cavit Pinot Grigio in the store. The 2009 is not typical and the staff at the store and myself were not happy. I have been tasting tons of Grigios and the winner was picked by my bridge group, cards, not river crossings. Another big company, but the quality made this an easy pick.

The Mezzacorona Pinot Grigio will be the new quality-price Pinot Grigio in the store. It was rich and smooth and tasty and reasonably priced. $13.99 for a 1.5 liter bottle and the regular sized bottle 750ml. will be priced $9.99, 2 bottles for $18.00. An honest bottle of wine. Oh, wait, Lincoln's birthday was in February. My bad.

Dry Riesling and more

Months ago a rep came in and tasted me on a bunch of German wines with mixed results. That's being kind. The wines were all average with the exception of one of the best DRY German Rieslings ever. I am embarrased to say I don't have the wine's name here, but will edit this tomorrow. It is $19.99 a bottle, dry, and delicious. It is a classic, you cound not mistake it for anything but a great dry Riesling. I am bumming a bit because my bride just made a yummy slowed roasted chicken that would be awesome with the Riesling.

I couple of blogs ago, I mentioned the Paul Cluver Pinot Noir. The 25 cases arrived today. I have had the wine again, and my words do not do it justice. I have learned that its flavors and aromas expand exponentially with time. I suggest a 3 yes three hour breathing time as a minimum to allow the flavors to properly expand. Pour it in a decanter if you have one, make sure the decanter is clean. This wine will improve in your cellar for 5-10 years, although it is wicked awesome now. If you are an early planner, there will be no better wine with your Thanksgiving turkey this year or your holiday roast of beef. I tell you this now because people who know wine will buy this by the case. I am already trying to get more more more more.

BNO

Boys Night Out. I am lucky to have joined a second BNO to um, er, compliment my first group of BNO. The BNO I attended on Thursday was wonderful. Like the other too much food wine and fun.

Surprise of the night was the Desiderio Merlot 2001 by Avignonesi from Tuscany. I had this wine in Italy, years ago and was impressed by its weight, style, flavor and all around wicked goodness. I have had it 3 times back here in the states and have been dissappointed each time.

The other night, it was spectacular! I enjoyed it more than the Chateau le Pin 1990 and I prefer older wines to younger.

$49.99 for the Avignonesi. Only one bottle left. If it is not gone by next week, it will be gone down my gullet.

Paul does it again

Paul Cluver of South Africa makes great Gewurztraminer and dessert Riesling. This I know for years. A week or so ago, I tried his Pinot Noir and it is spectacular. I have 25 cases coming in next week.

I just found out about his 2008 Chardonnay. It is spectacular too. But by the time I found out about it, there were only 3 cases left. They are in the store, now. They are $19.99 a bottle. They are more French in style than oaky buttery California Chardonnay. I had it tonight with pan seared scallops and it was a great match. But then again, I love scallops. But then again, the wine is special.

Only 3 cases will be gone soon. Too bad.

Reverse

Til now the posts have been about new arrival wines. This is a reverse.

One of the biggest selling magnum bottles of wine in the store is Cavit Pinot Grigio. It has been a big selling staple in the store for years. We buy it 100 cases at a time to keep the price competitive. I was down to my last 20 cases and put my order in for the next batch of 100. UNTIL

A very good customer with a very good palate had a glass of the new vintage, 2009, and found it to be very different. Think of you order a Coke at a fast food joint and you get iced coffee, black no sugar. Still a nice beverage but not what you expected.

The 2009 Cavit Pinot Grigio is very different. If you like the 2008 and before, you will be surprised. I have a dozen or so cases of the 2008. I will not be buying the 2009. Salesmen are bringing in new samples daily. I will find another good magnum of affordable Pinot Grigio.

South African Chardonnay

The biggest selling white wine in the store is Indaba Chenin Blanc 2009 vintage. When the winemaker, Bruwer Raats was visiting last month, he strongly urged trying the Chardonnay when it arrived. Salesman brought it to taste today. The drought of tasting tons of weak white wines is over. This Chardonnay is tremendous.

It is NOT oaky California style. It is rich South African style. Not lean smokey Chablis either. It is luscious and minerally at the same time. A wine oxymoron. Compared to the Chenin Blanc, it is the extra richness that you notice first, and then you can taste the flavor difference. Chardonnay tastes like Chardonnay and Chenin tastes like Chenin. Raats told me that this 2009 vintage is as great for red as the whites too. Can't wait to try the better ones....in a couple of years.

Merlot

Another of my favorite 8 x5 cards is.

To me it was true love, to her it was Meerlust.

Meerlust is one of the historic and top quality wineries of South Africa. They make a tremendous Bordeaux blend, called Rubicon, sorry California, this is better, but we are sold out of it now. They also make a wonderful Merlot, called, Merlot. Plums and minerals and hints of chocolate in a smooth red wine, that gets better with age. Age like 10 + years. Hard to believe in a Merlot. But this is the real deal. I love to serve this with a dish that has lots of herbs and spices in it. Beef, lamb, veal, all work terrificly. This is $24.99 a bottle, tastes 3 times the price.

Some people lust after it too.

Chinon Chinon Harvest Moon

Chinon is among the best red wine towns in the white wine region of the Loire Valley in France. The other night I tried 3 different ones from the great 2005 vintage. I was trying to organize my storage space in the store and found the 3 different cases in 3 different locations in the store room. I took it as an omen. And, quality rules.

Charles Jouget is considered by many to be the best producer in Chinon. The red grape grown in this town is Cabernet Franc. His wines are all delicious. His best wine comes from the Clos du Chene Vert vineyard. At $40 a bottle the wine is still very young and will keep and improve for at least 1o years, maybe longer. Fruit, and hints of brown spice, with some still youthful tannins, this wine is yummy now with fattier cuts of meat. I had it with beef short ribs and that has lots of fat, but the ribs were smoked and I was surprised that the wine did not work well with the smokey flavor. Oh, well, more homework is needed.

Ooops

As promised I tried the Santa Cruz Garnacha from Artazuri at $40 a bottle. You are better off with 3 bottles of the regular. It was dissappointing. Maybe it will be better with a few more years of bottle age, so down in the cellar it goes and lets have time do its thing.

As the saying goes, wine happens.

More Artadi

Artadi, my favorite Rioja producer, also owns a property in Navarra, Spain. There they use the Garnacha grape instead of Tempranillo. Garnacha is one of the most difficult red grapes to work with in the cellar. An expression I learned is "to make good Garnacha, you must sleep with your barrels." Apparently at the end of fermentation there is a narrow time window when the Garnacha must be taken off the lees, sediment. Miss this window and the wine is lacking, hit it, either by luck or skill and you get great tasting wine that is surprisingly pale in color for a red. The predisposition to paleness and the ability to draw the wine from the lees early, makes Garnacha easy to make into Rose.

Artadi's winery in Navarra is Artazu. The 2007 Garnacha is dellicious. At $13.99, it's a steal. Rose-lilac aromas in combination with some spice and earth make this a great wine for grilled meats. Or you can guzzle it. Or serve with a meaty paella. It was good with the cheeses too. Anyway, once you try a good Garnacha, you will probably look for them again and again. I keep looking.

PS. They also make a Reserva for about $40 a bottle, it is on my homework list as soon as it comes in.

Awesome Pinot Noir

I love a great French Red Burg. Nothing comes close in California, Oregon or anywhere else until tonight.

There is a high quality guidebook to the wines of South Africa named Platter's. It is the single most reliable wine rating publication that I have come across. In the 2009 guide, there is a new one every year, they rated the 2007 Pinot Noir from Paul Cluver as tasting like French Burg. Tonight I tasted the wine.

It was so good, I left a message on my suppliers voice mail, that I wanted to buy it all. You cannot get fabulous French red Burg for under $50 a bottle and then only rarely. This Paul Cluver Pinot Noir 2007 I tried tonight was fantastic. The fruit, the earth, the spice, the smoke were all in the wine and in balance for only $19.99 a bottle. My dining partner and I debated on what it reminded us of. We are confident that it tastes like a premier cru, Beaune. Premier Cru Beaune is around $80 a bottle, I would rather drink the Paul Cluver.

The wine was an amazing match with chicken. I can't wait to try it with other foods.

Jugs

Have you seen the new Foster-Grant ad on tv starring Racquel Welch? Brought to mind the movie Mother Jugs and Speed. And that brought my mind to jugs.

Santa Marvista is a delicious gulpable Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile that sells for $9.99 a magnum. Magnum equals two regular size wine bottles. That's it. Delicious gulpable and cheap.

A jug that came down in price is the Round Hill Chardonnay. Back to $14.99 a magnum bottle, this is classic easy drinking California Chardonnay. No prose nor poetry is needed to enjoy a simple honest good value white wine. Just chill it and chug it. Well maybe chug is too strong a word for wine. But it does rhyme with jug.

yo-yo wine

There is a region in the north-west of Spain called Bierzo. We carry a wine from there by Descendientes de Palacios. It sells for $39.99 a bottle, You will love it AND hate it, in the same evening.

I don't know why, but this wine changed in the glass all night long. First sip was too fruity, then it was bone dry and all the fruit was gone, later the wine had this wonderful fragrance, but it tasted weird. About an hour after opening it was delicious, complex and aromatic, but 10 minutes later, it closed again. Later still, the perfume came out and it was wonderful to taste.

I think next time, I will pour this wine into a decanter and wait 3-4 hours before I serve it with a fatty cut of meat, like prime rib.

Perfect wine for people that can't make up their mind.

where the white wine at?

I have been on a dissappointing streak of tasting not very good white wines the last few weeks. I don't know why, but wine tasting is streakier than a college student in 1974. NO< don't go there.

Battle of the Cabs.

I have two Cabernet Sauvignon in the store that are steals for $14.99 per bottle. Cannonball is a California Cabernet of dubious parentage. Well, not really, but the appelation, where the grapes are grown in California, is not mentioned. It is an easy drinking tasty Cab the pleases a bunch of people.

Another bunch of people love the Michael Pozzan Knight's Valley Cab. Knight's Valley is above Napa and is home to some pretty special and pretty expensive Cabernets. How he makes this one and only gets $14.99 a bottle is amazing. Another crowd pleaser, food is not need to make these wines shine, but any food, other than seafood will work fine.

Artadi

One of my favorite producers of red wine in the world is Artadi from Rioja, Spain. They make wines in the hundreds of dollars per bottle and they are worth it. Their introductory wine under the Artadi name is Vinas de Gain. It sells for $29.99 a bottle. It was wicked awesome with sausage stuffed pork over Tuscan white beans. Yeah, it's a Tuscan dish, but I love pork with Rioja. I enjoy when a wine evolves over the course of an evening in the glass. This wine gave me much enjoyment. I can use all the wine buzz words, you know, great fruit, hints of smoke, spice and wood, but words don't work here. This is one you have to try for yourself. Oh, it's delicious with any meat cooked on a grill, but NO barbque sauce.

Fenocchio

Giacomo Fennochio, I think, and his sister visited the store. He speaks no English, I can order a beer in Italian, so his sister did the translating.

No translating was needed in tasting 5 of his wines. They were all spot on, classic examples of Piedmont red wine. I bought 3 to offer for sale in the store.

For something to put in your cellar was the 2004 Barolo Bussia. 100% Nebbiolo grape from the famous and prestigious Bussia vineyard in Barolo, it is just starting to shed its hard tannic outer shell and already displaying the famous fruit and complex flavors of world class Barolo from a wonderful year. Retail on this beauty is $59.99 a bottle.

The normal Barolo from him is only $39.99 a bottle for the 2004. While this wine is no where near as big and complex as the Bussia, it is a great way to taste a more ready to drink Barolo today. This will age for another 10 years, where I would wait at least 10 more for the Bussia to show its best. Both of these wines should be saved for great cuts of red meat, roasted or braised.

The 2008 Dolcetto is fantastic. Drank a bottle with my bridge buddies tonight and all of them were wowed. Great fruit flavors, middleweight in body with just a hint of spice and tannin, it was delicious with honey roasted peanuts and 3 no-trump. $19.99 a bottle and not only will you think you are in the North End of Boston, you will believe you are at the sidewalk cafe nibbling on cheese watching the world go by.

Pinot Bianco

Pinot Grigio is not a mother grape. It's not a father grape either. It is a cross breed. Pinot Nero is the father and Pinot Bianco is the mother. And until about 30 years ago, most Pinot Grigio was pale rose, grey-rose colour.
The mom, Pinot Bianco is native to northeast Italy where it grasps all the minerality out of the soil and the winemaker add a pleasant yeasty-flowery flavor. It is a nice wine to show off good food. The 2008 Tieffenbrunner Pinot Bianco is a classic. Nice yeasty-flowery nose switches to crisp minerality on the palate. At $14.99 its a good wine to make anyone's cooking taste better. I have always wondered way more restaurants don't use this grape for a not too expensive high class dinner wine. Oh well. The less they know about it, the more it helps keep the prices reasonable

Old card new wine

I write on 5x8 cards in the store with some comments about the wines. Some cards are so good, I re-use them. One of my favorite cards is;

This wine is so good,
It was love at first sip!

Someone cleaned my out today of the last wine in the box. The replacement is the Cain Cuvee NV6. At $34.99 a bottle you get the classic California Meritage blend of the 5 grapes of Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petite Verdot. This batch is delicious. Open the bottle at least an hour before you serve it and you will be rewarded with all the classic aromas and flavors and richness of a Meritage 3 times the price. And I have quite a bit of it, no need to rush. Unless someone goes cuckoo on it. Always a chance

South African Wine Dinner

A fine group of gourmands asked me to host a wine dinner at the Oregon Club tonight, Wed. May 12th. The wine theme was South African reds. We ordered off the menu.

The 2008 DMZ Shiraz was the steal and deal. Retailing for $14.99 at the store, it has more French stylings than Aussie. It does has some fruit, but not the over the top ripe blackberry commonly found in Aussie wines at this price range. The DMZ has more complexity, like a Rhone, but none of the barnyard stink, that many people like. It is clean, with balance between fruit, alcohol and acidity. It worked very nicely with a delicious bowl of Bolognese. Later in the evening, when I snatched a last glass, it had developed more flavors and richness. Probably worth more than twice the price. I called in and ordered a ton more.

Something I ordered a ton of in March but it didn't come in til yesterday was the Graham Beck 2008 Pinotage, the hit of the Cape show. Alas and alack, the 2008 was lacking, really lacking, they shipped in the 2009. No more 2008! I was ticked!! So I tasted the 2009 with this group and it didn't taste bad. Many times Pinotage has an unpleasant aroma that never goes away. This one was clean, but, it was in shipping shock stage. To quote Elvis, it was all shook up. I will reserve judgement on this wine for about a month to see how it calms down. I am mildly optimistic.

The BIG hit of the night was the 2002 Sadie Family Columella. A meticulous picking of Syrah and Mourvedre grapes from the Swartland region of South Africa yields one of the country's best wines. $100.00 a bottle and worth it. You can use all the great wine buzz words to describe this wine and you still need more. I had the world famous Oregon Club sirloin cooked in a pan that is over 100 years old. The wine food pairing was better than Fred and Ginger, or even Fred and Wilma.

Hits from BNO

24 hours later and I am recovered.

Too much food and wine, I was full with the 5th appetizer.

Moe, Larry, the cheese course was amazing as always. And as always the best wine with oodles of cheeses is Alsatian whites with a bit, not a lot, of sweetness. For this cheese course the Marcel Deiss Altenberg Gran Cru 2000 was served. A blend of I don't know how many different grapes, rich enough to be Vendange Tardive but Deiss doesn't label this as such. It was equally delicious with the Spanish goat cheese, through a traditional Brie, melded with my favorite cheese known to me as Super Max and handled both a dolce Gorgonzola and an insanely delicious Roquefort. And if that wasn't enough, a bottle of the same wine from the 1995 vintage was also enjoyed.

Now to rest until the next BNO sometime during the summer.

Boys Night Out

A few times a year a bunch of us bad boys in the wine and food trade get together, cook, eat and drink and swap "war" stories from the past few months. Some of the dishes tonight are foie gras stuffed ravioli, fluke with rhubarb butter, and seafood paella stuffed chicken legs. There will be more, lots more and the CHEESE course. My job will be to line up the wine people bring and pair them with the food. I am in charge of bringing wine for the toughest wine-food pairing. Tonight that will be the rhubarb buttered fluke. Fluke is a fish like a flounder, or sole, but with a stronger flavor. Rhubarb is right up there with cranberry with tartness. I have selected an Italian white wine called My Time. Valter Scarbolo is one of Italy's best winemakers. He has taken a page out of Marcel Deiss' playbook and grows different varieties of grapes in the same field and picks them the same day. Both Deiss and Scarbolo believe that the grapes talk to each other to ripen the same day versus one after another. It works for them.

My Time is a blend of 3 grapes that has good acidity and ripeness. It is very hard to describe, but it tastes and smells wicked awesome. The wine sells for $34.99 a bottle. I will edit this blog after I try it with the dish. I can't wait!

Oh, I make the boys guess the wine. They won't get this one, unless they read this in the next hour.

Mother's Day Wine

My Mom loves big rich complex tasting red wines.

Sounds like Chateauneuf du Pape.

I love Chateauneuf du Pape with a steak on the grill. The 2007 CdP from Vieux Lazaret is delicious at $34.99 a bottle. It also comes in half bottles at $19.99. A blend of up to 13 different varieties of grapes from the Rhone Valley of France gives complexity to the wine. The most common varieties used are Syrah, Mourvedre, Cinsault and Grenache. Spice, smoke, earth and fruit make a nice combo in any wine. The 2007 vintage is fabulous throughout the Rhone. This is exceptional quality for the dough. In addition, the wine will age well for 5-10 years with proper storage. It's good to open this wine at least a half hour before serving. Pour it into a decanter if you like, it only will help.

My little birdies are telling me the 2009 will be spectacular, I can't wait.

Hooray

Finally up to date and it took too long.

So one of my sarcastic customers who reads the blog but won't be a follower, you KNOW who you are, asks me who I think should play me in the Julie, Julia then Bob movie. I KNOW this will never happen, so I am going right to the top, George Clooney. Irreverent he can play. Plus he looks wicked good in a beard and grey hair. He will just have to learn to dress down.

Suppose George wanted to do some character research and wanted to have dinner with me and I had to pick out a wine. OMG. Choke city.

I remember reading in one of those supermarket checkout tabloids that he either has a house in Italy or vacations there. Time to bring out one of my favorite wines. The 1979 Masi Amarone Aligheri. Forget price, this is not for sale. Out of my personal cellar this 31 year old wine has indescribable aromas and flavors. I bought too many cases back in the early 80's on the brilliant advice of a former salesman. Today, it is one of my top all time red dinner wines. I would serve it to George with simply grilled kidney lamb chops, fat buttered asparagus tossed with pecorino, and a mushroom red wine risotto. Hmm, I should mention that dish at our next Boys Night Out, and that night is coming soon.

May 7

On a previous day I blogged about a yummy Spanish Rose, Vina Rufina Rosada. My Mom took a bottle home and reports that as tasty as it was the first night, the rest of the bottle tasted better the next night. She stored the unused wine in the fridge too.

Here's another new grape for me, Airen.

I just bought an Airen from Spain. It is a light dry white wine that retails for $9.99. The rep tasted me on the wine twice before I bought it. The first time I was so unprepared for its flavor, it shocked me, and frightened me a little, yes wine tasting can be scarey, so I asked for a retry. The second time, a few weeks later, it was exactly the same. This is a good thing because the bottle variance with a wine that I have no track record scares me. I have to get over this phobia.

The wine is light and dry, and Pinot Grigioish, but it has the amazing flavor of pear and banana. Think about that combo pears and bananas. Weird, yet delicious. Not sweet at all. Its all about the perfume of the wine. Waiting for the next hot day to give it a go at home, while watching the boys do the lawn.

May 6

I should have been caught up by today, but between a glitch and a hail and a thunderstorm the conspiracy won.

Namedropping time, I had lunch with Emil den Dulk of De Toren Private Cellar of Stellenbosch in South Africa. Well lunch was in Millis, the winery is in South Africa. Everyone needs a winery on a hillside with an ocean view, yeah, I had the pleasure of visiting there back in 2008. Anyway, he was in Millis to show me the latest releases of his two top wines, Z and Fusion V.

Ahhh perfection! The Z is the lesser of the two, retails for $27.99, and emulates Right Bank Bordeaux with more Cabernet Franc in the blend. You can drink it now and you will be happy, but you should wait a few years and be very happy or a few more years and be wicked very happy. Seamless is a great word to describe the wine now. The wine is closed and you know it will get better with time or you could taste past vintages and be wowed, if you can find any. Although the wine is closed, it is so balanced that you have to work to find the tannins that are in perfect balance with fruit and alcohol. This is one of those wines that people look for that are not expensive now, but will taste very expensive in a few years of proper storage.

More perfect doesn't make sense, but the De Toren Fusion V, a Left Bank Bordeaux style blend with more Cabernet Sauvignon in the classic blend of the 5 Bordeaux grapes is more better. Love bad English. More money and more than worth it at $44.99 a bottle. Think famous named Chateaux that costs 4 times as much to deliver the same quality.

Now the problem. The winery has only been around for a dozen years. I cannot taste, nor can anyone else, older wine from them. Emil was kind enough to tell me that the first vintage has still not reached its peak. I sold a ton of the 2003 and told people to wait. Recently one of these wise customers opened a bottle of the 2003 and was thouroughly impressed, but offered his opinion that it also was still going to get better. Emil also has kindly put on accurate and informative back labels to the wine. The label tells you that the wine will age well for a decade, well I see your decade and raise it a score.

These are truly world class wines at insanely reasonable, more bad English, prices. Emil is no dummy, he will be raising prices with the next vintage.

May 5

Cinco de Mayo.

I have heard of wines from Mexico, but have never tried any. I just don't know.

I could suggest some wines for Mexican food, but I hate cilantro.

I like sipping Tequila, but this is a wine blog.

Got it! The more spicey heat in the food, the more sensation of sweet you want in the wine. Sweet counterbalances heat, is an easy way to remember this type of wine and food pairing. Most California and Australian reds and whites have more fruit than their European counterparts. An Aussie Shiraz like McGuigan Black Label at $9.99 a bottle should be a nice match with some habenero heated up dish. Or try one of the California field blends like Red Truck, also at $9.99. The good rich fruit flavors in these wines have enough stuffing to stand up to full flavored Mexican cuisine, even the Mole's

Now the first thing people think of with sweeter white wine is Riesling, NO NO NO. Although the sweetness works, the high acid content will burn burn burn when contacted with heat from spices. Oaky-buttery California Chardonnay should blend in nicely with good Mexican food. One of the few California Chardonnays that I like is Chateau St. Jean at $12.99 a bottle. Textbook example of California Chardonnay and good bang for the buck.

The Jean in Chateau St. Jean is pronounce Gene not Zhawn. Original owner named winery after his wife.

May 4

....and another thing, Moms love bubbly!

Prosecco is the name of a grape from Italy that is made into inexpensive bubbly wine that is not bone dry like French Champagne and not sweet like Asti Spumante. We carry 5 different Proseccos at 5 different price points, from $10.99 to $24.99 a bottle. The quality is in proportion to the price. Prosecco is the bubbly used to make Bellinis, the white peach nectar is poured into a flute first and the bubbly is poured in last. Now at Harry's Bar in Venice where they were invented, the Bellini is only made with fresh juice in season. Don't let that stop you from getting bottled nectar or you can have fun and use any other fruit juice you like. I tend to stay away from citrus though, the acid just doesn't work. Apple juice, pear is especially good and all the berry juices work great. Just remember to chill all the ingredients and the flutes.

And don't forget to toast your mother with some poetry YOU WROTE!

May 3

I have been saving this one for month.

What better wine to serve on Mother's Day than MOMA. No not the Museum of Modern Art but a tasty red wine, easy to drink and yummy with food from Italy.

We have carried this wine for numerous vintages, dating back to 2001. The 2007 arrived about a month ago and it could be the best ever. I tasted it at one of the Cape Cod shows I went to back in March and went cuckoo over it. It was smooth with nice flavors. I think it will handle a red sauce ok, but it will be great if you are honoring Mom with a barbque at your house because she needs a break. The wine's price is $15.99 and don't forget to do the dishes! Don't forget the card, get her a mushy one this year instead of the silly one you always get her. On second thought, buy the silly one too, just in case. Moms love surprises, even when they say they don't. And get a haircut, and take a shower, and put on a clean shirt, and shine your shoes, and pour the wine in a clean glass.

You get the picture.

May 2

Now that we have had our Euro holiday, let's go back to the states and have another barbque. So slam a pork chop on the grill with only a bit of salt and pepper, a rub of garlic and serve a Spanish red.

Peanut butter goes with jelly, bacon with eggs, and grilled pork with Spanish red. No barbque sauce! Can't explain why, but this is truly one of those 1 + 1 = 3 moments. (There is a wine from Spain labelled 1 + 1 = 3, don't use it for pork.) The pork makes the wine tastes better and the wine makes the pork taste better. This is the cop-out blog. Any Northern Spanish red works, the regions of Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Costieres de Segre and more all taste great with the pork chop. Spend a little, spend a lot, it won't matter, it will be yummy. So find one on your own, I got plenty at the store from $6.99 and up. This is a no-brainer.

May Day

May 1st in Europe is equal to the USA Labor Day holiday. Any day that is a holiday is a good day to drink wine.

With so many countries and wines to suggest for this Euro Holiday it is a hard choice. I don't think Euros barbque, and they don't stay inside and watch TV. They love to discuss. What wine causes discussion? Ahh, one of my earliest memories of wine school in Germany is the story of meeting the policeman. Teacher told me, "German wines are so low in alcohol, you can drink a bottle, meet the policeman on the road and you are the winner of the discussion!" Now I never ever would encourage drinking and driving, and since this is a holiday, you wouldn't drive, but you would stay at home and discuss. J.J. Prum Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett 2002 at $19.99 is perfect. About 7% alcohol, the same strength as many German beers, it is light, almost dry and positively delicious and refreshing. Perfect for conversation. Even politics. Ack. Prums wines disprove the notion that white wines must be drunk young. The high natural acidity of this wine holds it together perfectly and allows amazing aromas and flavors to develop, that only time can create.

This is special stuff at a great price.

April 30

See that comment on the side of the blog, I taste all the bad wines so you don't have to.? Today was a bad day. I tasted more cruddy wines today, really bad stuff, that my tongue wanted to slap me silly. But I perservered.

Mozafresca, sounds like a soda pop, is a tasty inexpensive dry white blend from Spain. The 2008 at $9.99 a bottle is a blend of two local varieties of grapes, Dona Blanca and Godello. I don't know much about the Dona Blanca yet, but the Godello is an up and coming grape. The wine is dry light and crisp in the Pinot Grigio style, but it has more flavor that is kind of hard to put your tongue on, so let's just say a hint of earth, spice and fruit. Just a hint though. I could see this wine served with assorted tapas, apps or grilled seafood. Even a tuna sandwich would work. Nice wine to have in the fridge for impromptu anything this summer.

April 29

First there was KFC.
Then there was KCC.
KCC is mine and one of my favorites.

For those of you that have not been in the store, I like to write on 5x8 cards and offer comments about the wines I sell. I try to be funny. One of my all-time favorite comments about wine is if it is good with KCC. Ketchup Covered Cuisine. Wicked funny and almost an aliteration.

Although not a big fan of California Red Zinfandel, I have found another one that I like. Brazin, nice name too, is a tasty complex Zin that works with ketchup and barbque sauce on red and white meats. Price in the mid teens, I forget exactly, maybe one of these days I will get a computer for the store, it has both good fruit and good spice flavors, but not extreme in either way. Balanced would be a good wine term for that. It is rich and a tad high in alcohol, so a chill would not be out of the question, and a designated driver would be a great idea.

And yes, I would serve it with KFC Original Recipe.

April 28

Unless I find another rose that knocks me out, this will be the last Rose blog of the year here.

Domaine de Houchart, as in Who Shot Liberty Valance, 2009 rose from Provence at $9.99 is waiting to be thrown into the nearest ice bucket. Light dry fresh with a gorgeous pink colour, color for when the color is good, colour when it is wonderful, this screams to be served pool-side, beach-side anywhere but inside on a hot day. I love it with a tuna sandwich. Or sushi, or grilled tuna steaks rare as can be. It also works nicely with scampi and of course Niciose salad.

Now all I need is some wrinkly white linen pants and a 50' yacht and I will look cool. NOT

April 27

Need a red wine for changeable Spring weather and menu items? Renato Ratti, strange isn't it, Raats and Ratti the same day, 2008 Dolcetto for $15.99 is a winner. This overlooked Piedmont red is perfect for Spring and Fall, not too heavy, not too light, it's a dry red wine with some red fruit flavors, some earthy barnyard flavors and goes with food. You can serve it slightly chilled or room temperature. I don't like it with red sauce. This is a northern Italian red. It is delicious with a salami and cheese plate for snacking, but has enough weight for red meats.

I have a weakness for sausage, onion and pepper subs with Fontina. If you can get the real Fontina from Val d'Aosta, you will be very happy with the sub and the Dolcetto. Very Happy.

April 26

After the Raats dinner, we adjourned to the courtyard and tasted some other Cabernet Francs, cuz I wanted to get the expert's opinion.

We started with the 2006 Insoglio de Cinghiale, a super-Tuscan from Maremma that is a blend of Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Syrah. At first, he said nothing, but I could tell it was not his cup of tea. A half hour later, he turned to me and said that he couldn't believe how much better it got in the glass over time. When I told him the wholesaler had dropped the price from $35 a bottle down to $25 a bottle, he told me, he would drink it at that price. Another rib-eye to be consumed soon.

Tony Soter is one of California's best winemakers. I have tasted his Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon and been impressed. I have never tasted his Cabernet Franc til the Raats dinner. At $70 a bottle this is flashy red wine. Lots of sweet new oak flavors are not my cup of tea. Raats thought the wine was correct but needed more time for the oak to calm down, but if you like those big showy California Cabs. this wine will work for you now.

And from out of the cellar I found the 1996 Beringer III Century Cabernet Franc! Spectacular! Also sold out. I dont think Beringer makes this anymore. The grapes were from Howell Mountain. Raats apprenticed at Cakebread Cellars for a while and told me that he learned that he would only grow Cabernet Franc on Howell Mountain or Chalk Hill because of the soil. This wine proved him correct.

Passion

Think of all the hits I will get with that title.

Had dinner with one of the most passionate, good guy winemakers in the world the other night, Bruwer Raats of Raats Family Vineyards of South Africa. He makes what he likes and he makes them world class and keeps the price to quality ration extremely consumer friendly.

He loves Chenin Blanc for white wine. He loves Cabernet Franc for red wine. He makes two Chenin Blancs. An un-oaked version that retails for $14.99 has perfect balance between fruit and minerality. What does minerality taste like? Try his Chenin Blanc! This is the ideal wine for summer sipping on hot days with a variety of salads and finger foods. Take time to smell the glass when empty, the aroma of golden delicious apple in harmony with peach is amazing.

His slightly wood aged Chenin Blanc retails for $24.99. This has some additional aromas and flavors of earth and mushroom with the apple-peach minerality. It was served with a 4 different appetizer plate. Any wine that can handle rhubarb, chicken livers, Andouille sausage and spicey calamari can handle just about any dish. It fits nicely in between over the top Chardonnay and refreshingly light Sauvignon Blanc. It lets the chef get credit for his food, but the wine stands up on its own.

Raats Family Cabernet Franc is $34.99. You can drink this or, for $349.99, you can drink Cheval Blanc. At a recent "brown-bag" even, I couldn't tell them apart. So either I stink as a wine taster, or the Raats is wicked good. At the dinner, it was served with a pan seared Rib-eye steak. Awesome! The 2007 in the market now is a bit rougher around the edges. With food it was perfect. I have put a few bottles in my cellar waiting for time to smooth out the wine. The 2006 is already smooth.

Now if you do want to spend a lot of money, Raats makes a wine in partnership with his friend Mvemve, the first black winemaker college graduate. The have a wine called MR de Compostella. Rough translation, compostion of the stars. They take the 5 great grapes of Bordeaux, vinify them separately, and then create a blend based not on quantity that they bought, but on the QUALITY of each individual barrel. The final blend is never the same. Each vintage is unique. There are only 400 cases of this wine. It ages amazing. At the event we drank the 2004. It has won a bunch of awards around the world. If you can find any of them, buy them. I am sold out. I begged him for some more. Time will tell if grovelling works.

April 24

Another sign of summer. About 10 years ago a woman comes in the store and asks if I can get her a wine she had in a fancy eatery in NYC. They charged her $14 a glass and she was willing to spend up to $30 a bottle for it. It took a couple of weeks but I tracked the wine down and at the time it sold for $7.99 a bottle. Since then the wine has gone up to $9.99 a bottle, it is a staple in the store and we sell out every year right around Labor Day.

It just came in today.

Les Rials Loin de l'Oeil 2009 is a light crisp off-dry white wine that is just delightful. Need a bottle to go to someone's house? this works. Need a bottle for the back porch when it is just too hot? This works. Need a bottle with summer salads? This works.

It's somewhere from the south of France. It's cheap. It's delicious. Chill it up, open it up, and have some fun.

April 23

Even though my brother was a contestant on Survivor, my favorite reality TV show is Project Runway. I am amazed what the designers can create in such a short amount of time. Those who know me have to be shocked, as my fashion sense runs from Hawaiian shirts in the summer to denim shirts in the winter. No joke, that's my idea of fashion. What does that have to do about wine? How about wine from the town that is half my wardrobe.

Yes, I have tried a pineapple wine from Hawaii, but it was not umm, well, umm, nothing to say.

Chateau Grande Cassagne 2008 from the town of Costieres de Nimes, is a tasty spicy earthy fruity red for $11.99 a bottle. Perfect with grilled burgers and dogs as well as cheese and crackers and any mid-week meal, make sure you are wearing denim when you serve the wine. Yes! Denim was invented in de Nimes. De Nimes is in the south for France not far from the Italian border. The material was worn by the Italian Navy in the 1800's and most of it was shipped out of the city of Genoa. Genoa, not only famous for its salami, but it is where the term, Blue Genes came from.

Did you know that the Genovese love green vegetables more than any other food?

Did you know that tonight was the grand finale of this season's Project Runway? That's why the de Nimes was picked. And I am wearing denim shirt and blue jeans as I blog this.

April 22

It's Wednesday. Pasta or Pizza night. Keep the price down night. The most popular inexpensive red wine in the store is I Rustici Nero d'Avola from Sicily for $6.99 a bottle.

Nero d'Avola is the name of the grape native to Sicily. It produces an easy drinking red wine that has just enough warm fruit flavors to compliment red sauce. What are warm fruit flavors? I don't know but it sounds like good wine geek speak. I do know that it is easy to enjoy with any southern Italian dish.

Did you know that mint is the herb of Sicily? Or that the eggplants of Sicily are white and shaped like an egg, hence the name eggplant? There are lots of other cool things about Sicily that I will share another time.

Ciao

April 21

A common request in the store is for a wine that is not too expensive now but will be fabulous in a couple of years or more. Not too expensive is a relative term in the wine trade, but rarely can I find a wine under $20 a bottle that will dramatically improve with a few years of time. $30 a bottle is a good place to start and picking a region or grape variety not well known gives the best bang for the buck.

The Domaine le Sang des Cailloux Cuvee Floureto 2007 at $29.99 a bottle is HUGE bang for the buck. When I tasted it, I tried to buy ten cases, but they would only let me have 4, an unusual number. This is a Rhone Valley wine from the town of Vacqueras. Most Vacqueras are $10-20 a bottle, but this is not most Vacqueras. If rob the cradle and taste it now, you will love-hate it, or hate-love it. When the bottle is first opened, it tastes like a California fruit bomb with gobs of lush ripe fruit flavors. Sometime later, between a half hour to a full hour, the wine closes all the fruit down and you are left with tannic, barnyard and peppery flavors. Over time these two separate sensations will meld into one terrific wine. My guess right now is to wait until 2015 for a wine extravaganza. I would serve it on a cold winter's night with a leg of lamb or roast of beef.
Venison would be awesome too.

April 20th

Manic-depressive, bi-polar, love-hate.

Viognier is a white grape native to the Rhone Valley of France. For the last 20 years or so, the wine press has been pushing this grape as the next "hot" white wine. It hasn't happened. This is good.

I hate the grape. I have a hard time finding a food for it. My first experience with it was in France about 20 years ago when it was first being touted. I wanted to be on the cutting edge. One night in the Rhone I went to a very fancy restaurant and asked the sommelier about Viognier. He told me it needed to be drunk young and was wonderful with well-seasoned seafood. I spent the money, I didn't get the wine. Next night I went to another very fancy restaurant and asked that sommelier about Viognier. He told me it needed to be drunk after it was ten years old and was wonderful with garlicky poultry dishes. I spent more money, I didn't get it.

I love the Pierano Estate 2007 Viognier from Lodi, California for $12.99 a bottle. It has fascinating aromas of pineapple and tropical flowers in a rich dry white wine. I still don't know what food works with it, but this one is so delicious, I don't need food to enjoy it. Chill it up and serve it to friends in the back yard. After you mowed the lawn

April 19th

Patriots Day here in Massachusetts, the official original Marathon Day. The Day of Paul Revere's ride. The Brittish are coming, etc.

No better day to suggest a Massachusetts wine. And it's is delicious!

RJR Brut from Westport Rivers Winery is a world class bubbly. Made in the traditional Champagne method, it is classic bone dry brut style with nice bubbles and flavor. I have served it to visiting European winemakers and they are shocked and surprised to the quality of the wine. Serve chilled with fresh local seafood, lobsters, oysters, bay scallops, striped bass, but not bluefish. $22.99 a bottle is half the price of what you would pay for a similar quality French Champagne.

You can tour the winery in southeast Mass. town of Westport in the morning, go to Horseneck Beach in the afternoon, and have dinner at The Back Eddy for some scrumptious seafood served at the dock. Ask for Sal and tell him I sent you.

April 18th

Is there a blog equivalent to "Stop the Presses!?"

Ctrl, Alt, Delete?

I love the classics. Perfect Foie Gras, Creme Brulee, Hot dog with mustard and relish at Fenway.
Domaine Alain Normand 2008 Macon La Roche Vineuse at $19.99 is a classic.
100% Chardonnay from the town of La Roche Vineuse in the district of Macon in the department of Burgundy in the country of France, is a perfectly made dry white wine that rivals Cote d'Or white wines for a third the price. Stay away from this if you like oaky-buttery California Chardonnays, but if you want to learn and not be dissappointed with classic French style Chardonnay, this is the big big winner. Dry, crisp, fruity, balanced with oak not obliterated by it, this is a wonderful wine to drink all summer, nay, all year, well, as long as we have it. It will make seafood sing, chicken chirp and cheese chime. It is one of those wines that the bottle empties too fast and you will wish you had more.

Buy a single bottle first, then buy it by the case only if you love it. If you don't love it, fine by me, cuz more for me.

I'm ba-ack

Sorry for being away, but life happens. Gonna do 2-a-days like football in August til I catch up.

April 17th, more or less.

"Great Question!" Standard answer when someone asks you a tough question and you need a couple of seconds to think up a "great" answer. Yesterday, a customer asked a great question that truly was a great question. "Bob, do you have a grape I have never tried before?" GREAT QUESTION! At least from my perspective.

Bobal is the name of the grape. It is grown only in East-Central Spain mostly in the Utiel-Requena region. It grows no where else on Earth. I love the grape. The red wine produced from Bobal is unique. It reminds me of Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Cabernet all rolled into one. Kinda Sorta. The 2006 Mestizaje, make sure it is 2006, the 2005 is weak, has Bobal and 5 other grapes in the blend, but mostly Bobal. $14.99 a bottle and it pleases wine geeks and typical palates equally. It is delicious with all red meats, roasted or grilled. It is smooth and tasty and aromatic. Yes, it's wicked good for the money.

My name is Bob, my late father's Al. The name of this grape is a good omen for me.

Fuentespina

Moving a bunch of cases today to make room for more wine and lo and behold I found a case of the 2001 Fuentespina Reserva! Yikes!! $29.99 a bottle for perfectly mature Ribera del Duero from Spain. 100% Tempranillo grape from the awesome 2001 vintage in Spain, is a perfect match with any meat cooked on the grill. Pork and lamb are best, though.

I was in Spain in 2002 and the samples we tasted out of barrel were and still are the best barrel samples I have ever tried. Usually when you visit a winery, you spend a few minutes tasting wines still in barrel and most of the time tasting the fresh releases and a few older wines thrown in up in the tasting room In Spain in 2002, every winemaker kept me in the cellar as long as possible. And time has proven this early elation to be correct. The wines are wonderful.

Open the bottle about a half hour before serving, or pour into a decanter and slowly enjoy over the course of a nice evening of wining and dining.

PS. Will be AFK for a bit,will make it up to you later!

The Times they are a-changin

A customer brings in the wine article from The New York Times about top quality German wines. She wants to know if I have any. Do I have any?

I sold her a bottle and I drank one tonight of the Schloss Schoenborn 2004 Erbacher Marcobrunn Erstes Gewachs. The Erstes Gewachs is a relatively new designation for German wine. It is the equivalent of a First Growth from France. A single top quality vineyard and made into a dry wine from Riesling yields the best of the best of Germany. Prior to WWI, most German wines were made into this dryer style, but when the Allies took back Germany, the cellars only held the sweet, rare dessert wines and after both WW's, people on this side of the pond assumed all German wines were sweet. Wrong.

Tonight I drank the wine with a variety of foods and it worked nicely with everyting but the soup and dessert courses. The aroma of the wine was classic German Riesling fuel-apple and it played a trick on your brain because the wine was crisp and dry. One meat I did not have it with tonight was chicken, and I think that will be the best match.

These wines are not cheap. But when you compare a French First Growth in the hundreds of dollars per bottle, a Riesling of similar breed and quality is a bargain at $39.99.

Co-inky-dinky

A salesman is about to leave the store without and order for the week, he turns as he is in the doorway and says "oh, that Bordeaux you like is almost gone, want any?" I love the wine and many customers do so I grab a bunch more.

Same day, first time customer walks into store and says " my friends served me a delicious Bordeaux the other night that they bought here, I would like a case."

That night an out of state friend tells me how much he loved that Bordeaux I sent him home with.

The Bordeaux? 2003 Chateau Montlisse from St. Emilion. A Cabernet Franc led Bordeaux blend from an erratic quality year that is pure delicious and tastes like Bordeaux. The heat of 2003 was not nice to many makers of Bordeaux as they tended to taste like American wines. Chateau Montlisse either got lucky or knew what they were doing. Now, it is still a 2003 vintage and I don't wan't any in my cellar 10 years from today, but for a tasty classic example of right bank Bordeaux, you get perfection for only $29.99 a bottle. Cheap by Bordeaux standards, cheap for wine of this quality. As for food, this is Bordeaux, and it loves lamb.

Two old friends

Two of the first batch of South African wines that started me on this happy path for wine fun are the Glen Carlou Chardonnay and the Wolftrap Red Blend. The rep was in today with new vintages on both and both are delicious.

The Glen Carlou Chardonnay new vintage is 2008. An erratic quality year in South Africa, Glen Carlou nailed its traditional French styling with balance between fruit, wood and acid. There seemed to be a touch more oak in the 2008 vintage compared to 2007. This added sensation of oak gave the wine a richer weight that was balanced by crisp acid. It reminded me of Meursault from France. Glen Carlou is $15, Meursault is $50, you do the math.

The Wolftrap is the entry level red wine to the aforementioned Chocolate Block which is made by Boekenhoutskloof in Franschoek South Africa. Wolftrap is a blend of red and white grapes that yields a steal at $9.99 a bottle. Complex in flavor and aroma, it handles red meat and all cheeses with ease. This is a contender for house red wine of the year. Serve with barbque for a wonderful match.

Am very proud of myself, just double-checked the spelling of Boekenhoutskloof and I got it right without looking the first time.

April in Paris

is good, but give me the Cape on a day like today. For you non-New Englanders, the Cape is Cape Cod and today was gorgeous for a Spring day and the last of my Cape wine tasting shows that I attend.

Tasted a lot of mediocre wine, very little bad wine and only a few really yummy wines.

A big surprise was Sawbuck Chardonnay from California. Lots of complex fruit flavors, hints of apricot, pineapple, and apple in a nicely balanced, not too oaky, not un-oaked white wine. The price, well a Sawbuck of course. Very well done California afternoon sipping wine.

Not a surprise was the Nino Negri 2006 Sfursat. Yup, Sfursat is spelled korrektly. The local Chiavanesca grapes, local dialect for Nebbiolo, the grape of Barolo, for this wine are allowed to slightly dry, like an Amarone. You get those big woody fruit flavors in a powerful red wine that screams to be served with a Gorgonzola infused dish. Or just a plate of great cheeses. This will retail for $50 a bottle.

Will blog about a few more, when they come in. The above wines were promised delivery this week. We shall see.

Eureka!

A little over 4 years ago, one of my wine savviest customers was commuting to NYC for business. He always went to the same restaurant, and ordered the same type of wine each time. On his last visit, he asked the sommelier for something my customer had never had before. The sommelier offered him The Chocolate Block and told him he would never find it anywhere as the restaurant had it exclusively in the city. The customer we shared told the sommelier, "No problem, my wine guy in Millis will get it for me."

8 months later I found it and got it for him. I am slow, but persistant.

He was very happy.

I tasted the wine and was overjoyed! At the time, I carried two wines from South Africa. Three with The Chocolate Block. and then another and another and another and now we carry almost 100 different wines from South Africa. I believe they offer the best bang for the buck wine values found anywhere in the world today. And it's not even close.

The 2008 Chocolate Block just arrived. It was promised to me back in November 2009. It is a delicious blend of red and white grapes. It has a sensation of chocolate in a rich dry red wine. I think the 2008 needs another 6 months in the bottle to show how good it is. It was yummy, but still too young with smoked ribs and slaw, and a flan of gorgonzola with andoullie sausage and toast. It overpowered a Coq au Vin Blanc. It retails for $39.99 a bottle in the store and this year my quota was 24 bottles. First come, first served.

Eureka is also a town in California as well as the yell for a gold strike. South Africa has more gold and better wine than California. E?UREKA! dude

Homework

I have a dog. The dog has never eaten my homework.

Tonight's homework was to taste two South African reds and write a blog on them. The wines were the Onyx 2007 Shiraz, the Guardian Peak SMG.

I had tasted the Onyx Shiraz at the previous Cape Cod Wine Tasting and it was delicious. Full, rich round smooth and darn tasty, on retaste this week I was surprised how good it was. So I retasted it again tonight. It's wicked good. A little barnyard in the nose and then just luscious flavors all the way through. AT $19.99 a bottle, I will be buying more this week. A potential big hit for summer grilling.

Guardian Peak is a sub-division of the Englebrecht-Els Empire of Wine. It's not really an empire but I wanted to use the aliteration. On my 2008 visit to South Africa, I had a planned visit to Ernie Els, yup, the golfer, winery. He makes, at least his name is on the label, a wonderful Bordeaux style blend, that I enjoy and will write about in depth later. At the end of the visit and tasting, the marketing director told me to visit their smaller winery down the hill, Guardian Peak. He made the phone call and the staff there spoiled me. What I didn't know is that they had a fabulous patio restaurant that was just opening for lunch. (Always visit the best winery in the morning, while your palate is still sharp) I asked if I could have lunch there and SNAP straight out of Goodfellas movie scene, a table was whisked from some hidden alcove and was set up at the edge of the patio with the best view of the mountains. Oh yeah, everyone was looking at who the bigshot was, little did they know it was only me. SMG is a blend of the 3 most popular grapes in a French Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Syrah, Mourvedre and Grenache. This SMG was and is complex in aroma and flavor from the use of these big grapes, with hints of smoke, dark fruit and peppery spice. At $24.99 a bottle it is half the price of Chateauneuf and just as good, if not better.

There actually was a third wine tonight, but its story will run too long for this blog. The Chocolate Block for tomorrow night then.

Promises, promises

Pizza Pasta!

Two of the most popular red wines in the store are the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo from Zacagnini and the Primativo from Le Sciare.

Montepulciano is the variety of grape that is the most widely planted grape in Italy. It should not, but it always is, be confused with dry red wine from the town of Montepulciano where they dont grow any Montepulciano. The Zaccagnini is the easiest wine to recognize in the store. It has a piece of grape vine attached to the neck of the bottle. It sells for $15.99 a bottle and is easy drinking and full of flavor to compliment pizza and red sauce pasta. Smooth enough for a Merlot drinker, complex enough for classic Italian red drinker.

Primativo is the variety of grape in southern Italy that is the same grape as the Zinfandel of California. But wait. DNA analysis proves that the Primativo is in fact native not to Italy but somewhere on the north east coast of the Adriatic. This wine is equally yummy but has a bit more fruit to it. This works better if you put red hot pepper flakes on your pizza or love your red sauce fra Diavolo. This sells for $12.99 a bottle.

Oh, the new and improved Domino's pizza is better than it used to be.

Get Back Jojo

Tonight I tasted a bunch of wines with friends and the wine that blew everyone's mind out was the Vina Rufina Rosado from Spain blogged a couple of days ago.

It was freakin AWESOME!

Unmistakeable aroma of strawberries, rich flavor, that was delicious chilled or not, great with all the food and three of the friends put orders in for a case for each of them. Calling the wholesaler to buy out the rest of his supply tomorrow morning.

I was planning on blogging about one of the other wines in tonights tasting, but why bother. Nothing else showed as good or as great a value. It was enjoyed by red and white wine drinkers alike.

Will do a couple of red wines tomorrow.

92 today

This is just ridiculous. Too hot. And too many bugs too soon. Yech! One last summery wine and that's it for a while.

Portugal and Spain make up the Iberian Peninsula. Geography is done now. Yesterday, it was Portugal and Vinho Verde. Today Spain and Rueda. Tomorrow, red wine I promise.

Due northwest of Madrid, oops, I lied about one geography lesson, is the region of Rueda. It sort of looks like parts of New England with rolling hills of gravel, geology that time. In Rueda there is a white grape grown that makes one of my favorite wines for summer dinners, or apps. The grape, Verdejo, is also grown in Portugal with the same name, different spelling and in parts of Italy, with a completely different name. The wine produced from Verdejo, at least the ones I like, are light and crisp in the style of an Alpine Pinot Grigio, and have a wonderful lemon blossom flavor. To my palate, lemon is one of the universal seasonings, it goes with just about anything and the lemony sensation in Verdejo is a summer classic waiting to be discovered. Waiting for the 2009's to arrive, I have a little of the 2008 Las Brisas at $9.99 a bottle left. The wine can be served straight from a cold condensationally challenged ice bucket.

We will be getting others in the store depending on the tasting of the 2009s. I am optimistic about their quality.

We havin a heat wave

Second day in a row, temps in the 70's and forecast for 80's tomorrow before we return to normal red wine drinking weather of April.

One of my favorite hazy hot and humid white wines of summer is Vinho Verde from Portugal. Literal translation is green wine. It is light, it is dry, it is slightly fizzy and it is cheap. 2 bottles for $10 for the Gazela brand name. There are dozens of brand names, just make sure the one you buy is fresh. My latest Gazela shipment arrived last week, so we are good to go. Serve ice cold with your favorite shellfish. Or just remember to guzzle Gazela.

A Rose by any other name

Rosado is Spanish for Rose wine. You know that pinkie colored wine that can be bone dry to unctously sweet.

I like my rose's dry, really dry. And I want them to have wonderful fruit flavors, yet still be dry.

About 6 or 7 years ago, I found one from Italy, from the Bardolino region, and it tasted like smooshed strawberries and was rich and dry. It was $20 a bottle at the time and I drank it all summer long.

The replacement for that wine is the Vina Rufina 2009 Rosado from Spain. Don't let the name Rufina fool you. It already fooled me. This delicious dry Rose has an intense aroma and flavor of fresh strawberries. It is a wacky blend of Tempranillo, red grape, Verdejo, white grape, and Albillo, unknown grape. It is only $14.99, a deal compared to my last lovable rose.

I will drink this all summer long and this Wednesday night. It is supposed to be in the 80's that day. And if it is not 80, I will drink it anyway. Gonna keep a stash in the fridge at the store too.

A is for Alphabetical

Every Christmas my bride gifts me a wine book that I would never buy for myself. Like all gifts, some are winners and some, well, let's just say make great door stops. This past holiday, she gave me 1001 Wines You Must Taste Before You Die. Catchy title. Makes me want to drink my cellar ASAP. Well the first wine listed in the red wine section is Aalto PS 2001. WOW! Not only did I taste this in barrel in Spain back in 2002, I own 5 6-packs of it that I bought in 2005.

This is GONNA be a great wine! Well, it already is a great wine, but it needs years of aging to reach drinking perfection. It is made entirely from Tempranillo grape, all of the vines are over 40 years old, from the Ribera del Duero region. I tasted a bottle when it first arrived and made a note, not to try it again til 2010. Now that it is 2010 and I have tried it again the wine is showing more complexity, and it's big, but it still needs more time. I will try it again in 2014. The price for Spanish perfection is $100 a bottle. No, not cheap, but wicked good, if you have the patience. I am thinking a prime rib roast would be the perfect compliment.

Aalto may go with Aardvark, but I have never eaten Aardvark so I can't be sure. It just makes sense though.

Chocolate Bunnies

There is a wine that goes with hollow or solid chocolate bunnies. It is delicious with flourless chocolate cakes. It is wonderful with one of those Death by Suicide Chocolate Layer Frosted Ganache Chocolatey Chocolate Cakes. The grape is called Brachetto.

Grown in the Piedmont region of Italy, Brachetto is a variety of grape that is made into a fascinatingly different wine. It is only 5% alcohol. About the same as a beer. We get the American word "Fizzy" from this style of wine the Italians call Frizzante. It tastes like roses and raspberries. It is sweet, but not cloying sweet. And it is awesome with chocolate.

Brachetto does fizz up in your glass. Use a regular wine glass and serve the wine chilled. Brachetto is opened with a regular corkscrew, there is not enough pressure to make the wine "pop." After that, there is nothing regular about the wine. Yummy with Sunday brunch as well as those chocolatey thingies, I love to serve it to wine geeks to see their reaction.

Presently at the store we carry the Alasia brand for $14.99 a full bottle. The most popular brand is Rosa Regale from Banfi. We don't carry this one. And we hope to get back the $19.99 Brachetto from Beppe Marino, if I can only remember who I bought it from.

In my youth, I loved to bite off the ears of the chocolate bunny first. Primarily to see if it was hollow or solid. Not that the ears tasted better, like my wise-%^& cousin told me.