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.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
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.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, August 2, 2010
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.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
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.
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.
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.
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