2004 Robert Mondavi Private Selection Merlot

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a Rispoli Event. The event was the 2006-2007 UW PMP CS Masters Graduates Dinner at the Yarrow Bay Grill. I was a graduate. Mr. Rispoli was the organizer of said event. We all had a great time.

Now, Yarrow Bay Grill is a pretty decent resturaunt. Their wine list is mostly Washington and California, with a few other nations represented in small quantities. Their list is a pretty good indicator of who's who in Washington state. They have plenty of DeLille and one of my favorites, the Sequel Syrah. So I was excited to eat their.

Turns out the catered meal came with our choice of red or white. The red was the 2004 Robert Mondavi Private Selection Merlot. It seems these days Mondavi's name is all over the place in the grocery store. This is a $10 wine and I didn't expect much from it. However, as far as $10 Merlots go, you'd be hard pressed to find I better one I think. I'll open nominations now. The wine was completely inoffensive, with just a slight bit of alcohol burn on the back end. There wasn't especially anything complex or interesting going on, but for free I could drink it all night.

I'm just going to take time out and give props to Mondavi. Everything I've had from them has been a quality drop. I haven't ever been super-wowed, even by Opus One (before you jump on my case, realize I haven't tried every vintage ever made), but I've never been sorely disappointed... or mad.

There, glad I got that out of the way. I can't wait to see what I get to drink tonight.

2002 Grant Burge The Holy Trinity GSM

If there is an under-represented wine blend in the US, it is the GSM. Yes, grenache, shiraz, mourvedre. Truly, it is a good blend. A great blend. A holy blend? Grant Burge thinks so. Thus after a vigorous round of de-lodging golf balls from sand traps, Ben appeared at my door with the 2002 Grant Burge The Holy Trinity GSM.

It was crap.

(Actually, it was okay. I didn't like it. Ben thought it was okay. I suspect he'll be reviewing it. I think that it was a bit thin and the flavor wasn't really appealing.)

2003 Justin Isosceles

I have my cache of Isosceles and I rarely dip into it. Ben was over, however, and I wanted to drink something of substance, so I grabbed a bottle of the Justin Syrah. However, before opening it, I consulted their Aging Chart. It said to hold on to the Syrah, but that I should drink the 2003 Justin Isosceles right now. So we returned the Syrah to the cellar and brought out the big bottle.

They were right about drinking it now. I don't think it will get any better with age. It was good, but not as good as the '02s that I have had. It was a very earthy wine, with the smell of vanilla and the taste of fruit, dirt and a bit of smoke. I love this wine, and it made me very happy, despite not being one of the stronger vintages.

I think you can pick this up from Internet sellers for around $50 (I believe it was $60 on release, retail). Other vintages, ('02 or '04) would be a better use of money, but if you already have some, drink it before it is too late.

2006 Rochioli Sauvignon Blanc and the Wild Ginger Wine Celler

I took Sara to Wild Ginger last Friday, since she had never been. Finding a good red wine to go with Thai and other Asian food is hard. Experience has show it's better to just go with a nice white. So I asked Nabil to help me find a decent white. I asked for something that wasn't sweet, was a bit crisp and had some fruit to it. He brought me the 2006 Rochioli Sauvignon Blanc. At $30, I was a bit skeptical, but he assured me it would be wonderful.

It is always a good sign when the Sommelier looks at the bottle and says, "Ah, yes, we just got our allocation up in the cellar and I've been eyeing it in anticipation." It wasn't on the wine list yet, but it turns out they had cases of the stuff. I generally bring my own bottle when going out to the higher end restaurants, because I would rather pay the corkage fee than the markup. I sometimes feel bad if the wine I bring is actually on the list, though. Sometimes.

The wine itself was everything I asked for. It was very crisp, slightly dry wine with hints of apple and pear, and just a touch of oak. There was no alcohol burn. It was obviously a white wine made well. Usually I don't like Sauvignon Blancs at all.

Throughout the meal, the Sommelier kept returning to top off our glasses. After dinner, we still had close to half a bottle left, however (we're light weights). So I invited him to have a taste with us. He poured himself a glass and we spent about 10 minutes chatting about the various wines we like, and he told us about some of the rare one-off bottles they had upstairs. Then he offered to take us up to the cellar to have a look around. Of course we accepted.

Their cellar was certainly well-stocked. The front room consisted of boxes of wines on their main list. The next room consisted of wines on the full, expanded list which comes in a binder if you ask for it. The back room also contained the really old or rare bottles. He explained the acquire many through estate auctions or people selling their entire cellars. He let me hold a 1945 Haut-Brion. He also showed us some Latour bottles from the 50's and 60's. They had Grange going back to, oh, around the beginning of time as well as many other Aussie wines of all vintages.

Another interesting feature was the extensive collection of "send-backs." These are the bottles that are, ostensibly, corked and rejected by the consumer. It was an eclectic collection. He said they save them and return them to the distributor.

It was great experience and Wild Ginger now moves up my list of great Seattle restaurants quite a bit.

2005 Des Voigne Cellars

Friday I had the pleasure of tasting the complete 2005 line of wines from Des Voigne. It was a fun tasting too; the wine maker was a very enthusiastic and knowledgable guy. Des Voigne itself is a small, boutique winery based in Woodinville, WA and using grapes from Yakima and Walla Walla. Here are my notes:

2005 Sauvignon Blanc - Red Mountin Grapes, 13.2%. It was a smooth, easy drinking wine with just a hint of Butter. I'm not really into Sauv Blanc, so lets move on.

2005 San Remo - 100% Sangiovese, 14.5%, it had hints of vanilla and really struck me as a big, bold wine.

2005 The Duke - 14.5%, an eclectic mix of Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cab Franc, this wine was a bit spicy and very different from your average Zin. I liked it very much.

2005 The Emcee - Merlot with 4% cab, 14.5%. My notes say: "Well made, some burn." Enough said.

2005 Solea - 14.3%, this is the Cab blend with Melot and Cab Franc. It had definite notes of Cassis and Green Peppers, which I think is a pretty bold move for a Cab. I liked this one best of all.

Overall, this was an excellent line of wines. The price point of mid to high twenty dollar range might scare off some consumers, but if you can afford it and are interested in some truely unique Washington wines, go pick some up.

2005 Justin The Orphan

I have previously professed my love of all things Justin. This is the second vintage of Orphan I have tried. The '04 vintage, released after the warehouse fire, wasn't very impressive and was inconsistent from bottle to bottle. I finally picked up a few bottles of the 2004 Justin The Orphan to give the current release a shot.

Every year Justin releases this wine. I hate to describe it as left-overs, but that's what it is. They make a blend out of grapes they didn't use in their other wines. I gather this one is mostly cab and syrah, though specifics of the blend don't seem to be available. I opened one bottle of the 2004 and it was okay. It's definitely at the top of the $15 range, but I just found it disappointing. It had some fruit, some smoke from the oak, and some really rough tannins that will probably mellow out over the next few years, etc. I won't be opening the remaining bottles anytime soon.

2003 Seven Deadly Zins

Raphael and I made this our house wine when we were roommates. We bought it by the case and opened a bottle whenever we had guests over. Everyone always enjoyed it. For the price it is a wine that, at least for the past three vintages, you just can't go wrong with.

Like Meatloaf is a baseline for restaurants, the Seven Deadly are a baseline for tasting red Zinfandel. If I go taste a Zin and it isn't better than the 7 Deadly, but it costs more, than I pronounce it overpriced.

I found a perfectly kept bottle of the 1997 Penfold's Grange at a small nearby grocery store, so while I was there buying that, I bought some 7 Deadly to fill out the six bottles I needed for a 10% half-case discount. :)

meatloaf

Whenever I try a new restaurant, I usually order a test dish. At Thai places, I get the Panang Curry. At steak houses, I get the Fillet. At diners I get bacon and Swiss omelets and hash browns. I use these as calibration dishes.

Last fall, Sara and I went to Napa for a few days. While we were there we completely failed to make any dinner reservations. On Friday night we found ourselves driving from two hour wait to two hour wait. Then a helpful limo driver suggested we try Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen. It's a block off the main drag, but what a difference that block makes. We got a seat right away (at the Bar, but a seat is a seat). Staring at the menu, I was inspired to order the Meatloaf. Aside from visiting PlumpJack, it was the best decision I made all week. It was awesome. One of the top food experiences of my life.

So Meatloaf has become one of my new calibration dishes. I mean, lets face it: it's Meatloaf. It is not a dish a lot of people go out and order. It doesn't exactly scream "fine dining." So, for certain types of restaurants to put it on their menu is for them to make quite a statement. Thus I oblige and order.

Here are my recent trials, in ascending order of awesomeness, with comments:

3. Purple Cafe and Wine Bar -- The mushroom sauce neither added nor subtracted from the dish. The ketchup-based topping was good, but way too sparse. The meat was of uniform density, but rather bland. It was well-prepared, but not spectacular. If they dropped it from their menu, I don't think anyone would notice. The mashed potatoes and green beans that came with it were excellent, however.

2. DC's Grill on the Plateau -- DC's is a great restaurant and everything they do, they do well. Their Meatloaf is no exception. It was a bit spicy. The waitress claimed it was the best in Seattle, and I can believe it just might be.

1. Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen -- I don't know how they make that sauce or what they put into it, but it is amazing.

This raises the inevitable question: what wine goes well with Meatloaf? That's the beauty of it. You can drink Zin, Cab or Syrah.

2003 C. R. Sandidge

On Saturday, Ben and I did some very relaxed golfing at Bellevue Muni. I shot 90, which sounds pretty good until I mention we only played 9 holes. I'm going to blame it on not having my own clubs (Ben is much shorter than I) and the fact that I haven't played since college (over six years).

When we got back to the house I opened the 2003 CRS Tri*umph for Sara and I to have with dinner. Ben hung out for a few minutes and had a sip. It was an awesome wine. Sara's dad is in their wine club, and I think he made a good call on that one. The wine was a Cab, Malbec, and Merlot blend, which isn't too common for a Washington wine. This bottle was a gift, but I believe it retails for around $40. It's a nice, mineraly wine and probably one of the few Washington wines that can reasonably command such a large price.

2005 Slipstream Fastback Reserve Shiraz

Over at the Seattle Wine Blog is a post about Australian wineries spending money on advertising to entice consumers who regularly buy sub-$10 wine to buy $10-$20 wine. My personal thoughts on the topic are this: most of the cheap end of Aussie wines is still better than the cheap end of any other wine growing region. I'd rather drink a glass of cheap Aussie Shiraz than cheap California Merlot any day. However, I'm not really in need of convincing that I should be spending $20 on Australian wines.

Case in point: last night I opened a bottle of the 2005 Slipstream Fastback Reserve Shiraz which was a 93pt wine that I paid $24/bottle. It was worth every penny. I probably would have paid $30 for it, which is what most retail outlets charged for it, but it's a close call because I can always buy a bottle of Bin 128 for under $20. However, this was a nice change of pace. It was the dark, inky purple so characteristic of Shiraz but it had a definite hint of blueberry on the front end with a nice long, smooth finish. Drink it now and for a few years hence.

I had this by itself--no food. It's a good drinking for the sake of it wine.

La Berta Almante Alicante

When I first opened the bottle, I thought it had gone bad, but it opened up rapidly and became drinkable within about twenty minutes. Made from the elusive Alicante varietal, the La Berta Almante is a pepper-bomb. It smells of pepper and spices, and it tastes, oddly enough, of pepper. It's really a bit too much pepper for my taste. However, it seems very much a food wine, so we drank it with dinner. I made Pasta e Fagioli and the wine really stood up to it. Garagiste described it as an "eccentric" wine, and it sure is at that. It's non-vintage, which means they blended wines from several vintages (2001, 2003 and ???). For certain people who really love old-school wines, this would fit the bill. I don't think I'll be buying more of it, even for $14.

cooking with the aussie

So, Ben says, "let's cook a feed." And the next thing I know, we're off to Whole Foods.

Fuckin' Parpadelle
0.75 Sweet Walla-Walla Onions, chopped
1.0 Green Bell Pepper, chopped
0.5 Shallots, finely chopped
2.0 Cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
1.0 Habenaro, finely chopped
1.0 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2.0 Cans of Tomato Sauce
0.5 Cups of Chicken Stock
1.5 Packages of Fresh Parpadelle Noodles
4.0 Ounces of Sliced Mushrooms, finely chopped
0.25 Pounds of Ground Beef
0.25 Pounds of Ground Lamb
0.25 Pounds of Ground Mild Italian Sausage
0.25 Pounds of Ground Ostrich
3 Tablespoons of Marscapone
0.33 Cups of Parmesan, grated
1.0 Package fresh Mozzarella
1 Cup of Good Red Wine
Generous amounts of Oregano, Salt, Pepper, Dried Red Pepper Flakes and Cayenne Pepper

1. Cook Onion, Green Pepper, Garlic, Shallots and Habenaro on medium-high heat until onions are translucent and everything is generally squishy. Stir occasionally, do not let anything burn.

2. Add half of the chicken stock, the mushrooms, all the spices, and all the various ground meats. Cook on medium-high heat until meat is browned, stirring often. Add chicken stock as needed to prevent burning.

3. Add tomato sauce, red wine, marscapone and mozzarella. Stir. Continue cooking on low heat for 10 minutes or so, until everything gels and a good consistancy has been achieved.

4. While that cooks, boil the Parpadelle noodles for a few minutes. They're fresh (you did get fresh ones, didn't you?) so they'll cook quickly.

5. Strain noodles, combine with meat sauce, eat with bread and good red wine.

We drank the 2004 Fox Creek Shiraz and the 2004 Sablet. They were good.

And if you're wondering what to do with the Mozzarella, you forget to put it in and just throw it in the fridge when you are done eating. This is a vital step.

2004 Wilson Gunn Shiraz

After we sucked every drop of the Ridge Essence from the bottle, we repaired to the wine room to select another. After much debate (and much eyeing of Raph's wine that he still has not managed to get shipped to Chicago) we emerged with the 2004 Wilson Gunn Shiraz, direct to me from McLaren Vale via Garagiste. It cost $17. Tanzer said it had aroma's of fruit, rhubarb and mineral with a "suave floral topnote." I say it smelled like a farm in the fall. That's probably not right either, but it was very distinctive. The taste was less distinctive, but very good. It was smooth, slightly fruity and thick. The wine was very dark, like most Austalians of this variatel. It was a pleasure to drink and hard to beat at that price. I think it even beats Penfold's Bin 128.

2003 Ridge Zinfandel Essence

I picked up a half bottle of the 2003 Ridge Zinfandel Essence at Whole Foods for $30. It caught my eye as I was wasting time at the deli counter waiting for the man to slice my corned beef. (They have awesome corned beef.) It interested me because it was 100% Zinfandel. All their other zins are mostly zin, with small percentages of other varietals thrown in. So I figured this must be their best grapes.

What I did not realize until later was that it was also very sweet. A late harvest zin. Basically a dessert wine. It wasn't like Port, but it was definitely headed in that direction. So I had it with a piece of cake that Sara had made earlier in the day.

The wine was awesome. It is good that it comes in half bottles, because of the sweetness. We set out to drink, not to have an after-dinner dessert sip.

The wine itself, beyond the sugary goodness, was incredibly new world and full of fruit. That's about it. Ben liked it, and he usually doesn't go in for California wines.

2003 Rubicon Cask Cabernet

Using only fruit grown on their Rutherford estate, the Neibaum-Coppola folks have thrown together a great wine. Quite tannic at first, but once open it mellowed nicely without a long decanting period. The wine was New World but classy. No ridiculous amount of fruit. It is aged in American oak, but the oak in the wine is not overdone--indeed it was hardly noticeable.

((I feel a digression coming on, so new paragraph.)

Personally I love oaky wines. I like it when you can really taste it. I like American oak over French oak. I like Missouri oak the best. I understand this is a controversial view point. Some people think wine should taste like grapes and not furniture. Others point out over-oaking is a signal that something else is wrong and oak is being used to cover it up. I am okay with that... I like what I like.)

The point is, this wine isn't over-oaked. It was a bit ashy, and had just a hint of vanilla. Just a tiny little hidden drop. You can taste it if you work hard enough. And that was my real problem with this wine. It just wasn't enough going on. Smooth, easy drinking wines can be had for much less than the $62 this bottle cost. I was promised this wine would blow everyone away, but for the price I'd rather be drinking the PlumpJack merlot.

how to study wine

According to the New York Times if you want to learn about wine the best way to do it is to do it at home. There suggestions are quite useful:

• Find a good wine shop and a salesman you trust.
• Find another wine shop.
• Buy a mixed case from both.
• Drink it with food.
• Take notes. Like, start a wine blog, perhaps? :)
• Buy more of what you like.

Seems pretty good to me. I think I'll be taking a class though.

2004 Ridge Geyserville Zinfandel

What can I say? When it rains it pours. I just can't get enough of Ridge. Our Morton's expedition offered another chance to get some Ridge Zin. They Geyserville was like (Lytton Springs)++. It was richer and had a tiny hint of vanilla in the finish (at least when paired with the steak). Retail on this wine should be less than $35. It's opulent.

Morton's

Last night was guys night out at Morton's in Seattle. I had never been to Morton's but I had always heard good things. Five out of seven of us ordered the Chicago-style bone-in ribeye, which was excellent. It wasn't the best steak I've ever had. It was flavorful and cooked exactly as I ordered it, but I don't think I would get it again. Next time I'll probably go for the fillet. I think I still like Daniel's Broiler better for steaks (there was contention about this topic among the seven). But one cannot consider just the food when evaluating a restaurant.

What made the night great was the service. Our waitress was outstanding. She knew the wine list back and forward. At Morton's they bring the meat cart with your options before you order. She brought out the meat cart with a live lobster and told us all about it and how it would be cooked. Then she let me take a close up look and handle it. She didn't even bother telling us about the seafood options--she knew that wasn't what we came for. The whole time she was taking care of us she joked with us and took part in our conversation. The other members of the staff were equally attentive, keeping drinks filled and the table clean. At one point someone dropped a fork and the chef sent a member of the kitchen staff running to replace it (but Kevin was too fast for him and grabbed a replacement off a nearby table).

Other food: the pre-dinner bread is awesome, the lobster bisque is okay (great lobster, okay bisque), the chocolate souffle is incredible.

After desert a man appeared with a tray of glasses and bottles. He informed us the waitress had so much fun with us she was buying us all an after-dinner drink. We had our choice of Bailey's, Port, Cognac or Sambuca. And they did not skimp on the pours at all.

I'm glad I went. I was a bit jealous of Ben's experience at Tosoni's, and I think this makes up for it. I'll post about the wines we had in separate posts.

2005 Portteus Zin (redux)

A few months ago I blogged about the Portteus Zin. That post was in April but I actually drank it months before that (yes; I was padding out the blog a bit). Well, yesterday I brought a bottle of the same in to work to share with my coworkers. The wine has really settled down after sitting in the bottle for a year. The mineral taste and pepper was still there, but much more mellow. The wine was still very smooth with no hints of alcohol burn. I think I'll make a habit of letting it sit much longer before opening it. Ahh... the rewards of patience.

2005 Le Quatre Filles Cote du Rhone Villages Rochegude

Another Garagiste acquisition. This wine cost $12. I bought three or four based solely on the description which I will quote here: "This is a gritty, tannic, deep and true old-style Rhone wine with an unprecedented balance and charm from the 2005 vintage." How could you pass on that?

We uncorked the wine and let it warm up to room temperature. Once it had been unleashed it was like a bad house guest. It was like someone had kicked dirt in my face. It is dark and earthy. It was a great wine, and one I would go back for even if the price doubled. But this is no casual drinker. This is the sort of wine you need to drink with food. Or a wine you need to drink after drinking some other bottle of wine. Maybe it will settle down with age--it should age well for a while given its current feistiness.

I love it when French wines come through.

2004 Ridge Lytton Springs Zinfandel

Sara and I went to Restaurant Zoe for dinner on Saturday. Their food is some of the best I've had in the Seattle area, and I highly recommend it. The seared crispy skin chicken breast was the moistest chicken I've ever tasted; the wild boar bolognese is just awesome for being both a fairly exotic (by American standards) meat and really tasty in with the fresh arugula-based noodles. Their risotto is no slouch either.

They also have a great wine list.

Their list contains many of my favorite wineries (I first tasted Dellile here). However, neither of us felt like drinking an entire bottle of wine (or paying for it) so we ordered a half bottle of the 2004 Ridge Lytton Springs Zinfandel. I had just been discussing Ridge with a coworker on Friday, so it had been rattling around in the back of my head. My former roommate had a membership to Ridge's wine club and I was always excited when that box arrived.

Ridge does Zin. They PWN California Zin. Ridge is the Gold Standard by which I am compelled to measure American Zinfandels. The Lytton Springs Zin is one of their cheaper wines, typically selling in the $20 range (or $42 for a half-bottle at a fancy-schmancy downtown restaurant). The wine is a deep, dark purple (almost black in the mood lighting). It's got a great loamy-earthy taste and full of blackberries and other dark fruit. You can drink it with pizza (which a quick web search confirms many people seem to be doing) or you can drink it with wild boar and chicken. Or you can just drink it. Upon the first taste, Sara was exclaimed something--and I forget the exact wording--but it was basically excitement about all the things going on with this wine.

But some. Let it sit for a few years. Then drink it. I know after this little reminder, I'll be stocking up on some of their wines.

2003 Domaine Sorrin-Coquard Cesar Cuvee Antique

Friday was beautiful two weeks ago in Seattle. After raining all week the sun finally came out. I left work early, went home and mowed the grass. It put me in a good mood, the weather and the work. And since I took my glasses off to do it the world had that surreal strangeness it gets after your eyes have gotten used to wearing glasses and then you take them off. The sun was setting so everything was yellow sunset-colored. This demanded the perfect wine.

So I dug into the collection and found this, the 2003 Domaine Sorrin-Coquard Cesar Cuvee Antique. This is a unique wine. The Cesar variatel is an ancient one, grown in northeastern France since the time of the Romans. It has largely taken a back seat to Pinot Noir in Burgundy. But 2003 was very warm and Pinot didn't do so well, but the Cesar became a rock star.

From what I understand, this wine is meant to be 100% Cesar, but the title "Cuvee Antique" would imply a blend, so I assume it is mostly Cesar with some of the other Antique variatels used in lesser amounts. It is from 60 year old vines, only 100 cases made. I picked up four at the ridiculously low price of $18.

I had never (knowingly) had a wine with Cesar in it, much less a wine primarily composed of Cesar. It turned out to be a great sunny Friday afternoon wine. The wine was lighter in color, like a good Pinot, but the taste was astringent and chewy. The wine was smooth. Not just smooth, but smoooooooth. I'm not sure what to compare it to. This is what I should have taken to Aaron's blind tasting.

2001 Penfold's St. Henri Shiraz

Readers of this blog who pay close attention to detail will note that the St. Henri is listed as one of my favorite wines over in the "My Favorites Wines" section to the right. So of course I was happy to see that Ben had brought over a 2001 Penfold's St. Henri Shiraz to drink last night. We were celebrating, um... Wednesday?

The 2001 is a great vintage for this wine, and Ben's bottle was nice and dusty indicating it had been sitting, undisturbed, in his wine cellar for the last six years. And I know he keeps his Penfold's wines well refrigerated. The wine had aged nicely, but was no where near the end of its lifetime by any means. It was a nice dark purple you expect from the Aussies and had that nice, earthy richness that is characteristic of these wines. It smelled and tasted of dark fruits, with almost no oak at all.

Some places, notably Whole Foods, have been charging ridiculous amounts of money for this wine--upwards of $70. Wine sellers that haven't lost their minds have this closer to $35-$40. I know Garagiste has gotten shipments for as low as $20 / bottle. So, keep your eyes open and shop around on this one.

complaints and missing posts

I had typed a long post, but I clicked "Publish" without filling out the captcha. This lead to an error and the loss of the entire text.

I really wanted to send someone an e-mail about being able to at least save without using the captcha, but I couldn't find a single support e-mail alias for Blogger. Then I decided to post to a group, but that turned out to be more complex than just clicking the group and clicking post. I had to join things, or subscribe to things.

So I'm going to complain here, for all the good it will do. You out there reading this Blogger admin-developer types? Please do something about it. Forgetting to enter the captcha text should not lead to loss of post text.

Your captcha is pretty bad. I've had to cut and paste this entry several times after typing the captcha exactally as it is and still being denied the ability to post.

The audio version of the captcha fails to play as well.

value wine tasting

My colleague Aaron had a wine tasting party on Saturday. The rule was: Nothing over $15. Here are my notes:

2004 Sterling Vintner's Collection Cabernet Sauvignon - Pretty bad. Icky.
2003 Northwest Cellers Cab-Merlot Blend - Pretty bad. Weak, bad color, overly sweet.
(NV) Cheap Red Wine - I can't believe California lets them export this. It's truly terrible. It was bright pink and incredibly sweet. It burned.
2002 Terra Blanca Merlot - A decent winery but an uninteresting wine. Merlot done badly. Don't let that discourage you from trying their other wines. I've actually been to the winery, and it's a beautiful facility. Anyone touring Yakima should stop in.
2003 Chateau Beaulieu - A sleeper of the '03 Bordeaux vintage, but unfortunately not very consistent from bottle to bottle. This is what I brought. I bought a half case, and some bottles have been stellar, one I had to pour down the sink, and this one was okay. It was smooth but lacked structure.
2003 Rabbit Ridge Syrah - A great value wine from Paso Robles. This was the favorite of the night among most attendees. Chewy, dark, smooth, fruity.
2005 Fat Bastard Chardonnay - Not overly sweet like a lot of value Chard, but not buttery enough (or at all) for my taste. A wine that sells mainly due to clever naming.
(NV) Cheap Red Wine - Can you believe two people brought this crap? At least we know it's not consistent because this tasted nothing like the other bottle. This one was absolutely revolting. I had to dump it after one sip. It was like drinking rubbing alcohol that had been flavored with wine-extract (which is a product I just made-up rather than denigrate Kool-Aid's good name).
2005 Seven Deadly Zins - My favorite of the night. I love this wine. It's been consistently good for the last three or four vintages and is a frequent drinker at my house. Some places have started charging over $20 for this wine, but you can still get it for $16 at most respectable wine shops.

This is the point where we left. A few more wines showed up later that I didn't get to taste, but I'm not too worried about it. :)

Overall, it was a rough night. And the rumors are true--I did get set on fire. There were these strategically placed tea-candles...

For pictures of the event, including the burn hole in my shirt, check out Aaron's page.

happy hour: ruth's chris

Downtown Bellevue offers quite a triad of happy hours. Daniel's Broiler, Sea Star and Ruth's Chris each have great happy hours with very high food quality to price ratios. This week I hit Ruth's Chris.

The happy hour is from 9pm to closing. To eat I had a cheeseburger ($3) which was the best damn $3 burger you are likely to find in Seattle, not overcooked (medium) and made with good meat, lettuce, tomato and onion (hold the mayo). To drink I had the red wine special, which was The Little Penguin Cabernet Savignon ($3). The Little Penguin is a discount wine from Australia that nestles into the same class as the low end Rosemount and Penfold's wines. It was drinkable, if a little rough around the edges. It goes oddly well with the cheeseburger though.

Hoegaarden Witbier

Okay, so it's a wine blog. But I've already strayed into food, so I might as well mention beer as well. I usually don't drink beer at home because I like it to be from a tap. There are very few beers out of a bottle that I enjoy. I was skeptical that Hoegaarden would be any good out of a bottle, but it's actually quite nice. Very crisp, goes well with pizza. I give it 4.0/5.0.

a happy birthday indeed

On Friday night, Sara and I attended her esteemed uncle's birthday party. One of the things I love about her family is their high appreciation of fine wine and unending generosity in sharing it. We were, as always, in a hurry to get there in time for dinner (getting anywhere after work on a weekday in Seattle is a battle) and I utterly failed to pick a bottle from the wine cellar to bring to dinner (we brought a bottle of the Gaja as a present). It didn't matter--anything I was likely to have picked would have gone unopened in my desire to try the other wines that were present. We did have to drive home, after all.

When Raphael and I were roommates, we would frequently have guests over and go through a flight of bottles that had big names, but this night will stand out in my memory for a long time. Sure, there are some big names in the following list. Some may say they are overrated. I won't argue the point. What I will say is that drinking all of them was a pleasure. I hope I remember everything accurately.

We started with the 2003 Stag's Leap Petit Syrah. Stag's Leap has made an appearance here before, so you know how I feel about the winery. I've never had the Petit Syrah before this. I've often seen it, as I'm sure many have, at the wine shop, but it always made me a little nervous. Just something about the lone varietal stamped on the label that seemed a bit foreboding. All my fears were unfounded. It was a nice, dark, wine that was very smooth. It wasn't a gigantic wine which is what I expected. It had a few interesting layers and was very drinkable on its own, as we had it before dinner without accompaniment. For those keeping track, it is actually a blend of mainly Petit Syrah with Viognier, Carignan, Mourvedre, and Grenache. Like I said before, these wine makers know what they're doing.

Sara's aunt cooked dinner. It was (this is the theme for the night) another thing I had never had. Sara told me on the way over that it was going to be Cabbage rolls. Thoughts of bad Thai restaurants popped into my head, but she assuaged my fears. They turned out to be amazing. It was meat and other goodness wrapped in cabbage and cooked in a red sauce. I ate too many of them. I focused so much on eating them that I hadn't finished my glass of the Petit Syrah when I noticed the next wine had appeared in the decanter.

The second wine of the evening was the 1997 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon. If you're wondering why that name sounds familiar, it's because Quilceda Creek is the only Washington winery to ever produce a wine that got 100pts from Robert Parker two years in a row (2002 and 2003). The 1997 was the first time I've ever had the pleasure of tasting anything from Quilceda, and I must admit it lives up to the reputation. This is perhaps the earliest anyone would want to drink the '97; according to the winery they should bottle age well into 2020. The bottle we had was young, but it was far from infanticide. It was a very well put together wine, blending 89% cab, 9% merlot and 2% cab franc. What I tasted most was the mineral taste that seems to be characteristic of these Washington wines. There were hints of fruit as well, but I had a hard time placing them. It reminded me most of snozzberry.

In case that wasn't enough, we went back to California to finish off the night with a bottle of the 1997 Etude Cabernet Sauvignon which comes from Napa. Unfortunately, I utterly failed to find out which of their cab's it was. It was oddly similar to the Quilceda, but more supple and less mineral. It was really great to drink after the Quilceda, because it really contrasted the two regions. A truly luscious wine. I will add it to my list of wines I'd love to drink daily but just can't afford.

Quite a night!

the joy of cooking: chicken piccata

Tonight Sara and I had the 2002 Red Diamond Shiraz. Since I have previously reviewed the 2001, and this isn't significantly different (I think the '01 was slightly richer), I'm going to talk about food instead.

Sara was still doing work when I got home, so cooking dinner fell to me. A quick inventory revealed my only options were really Matzo Ball Soup and something chicken-based. So I pulled out our trusty copy of The Joy of Cooking and flipped to the poultry section. The first entry under sauteed boneless, skinless chicken sounded good: Chicken Piccata. It's a pretty straight-forward recipe, but I had never made it. Further inventory investigations revealed I had no capers, no lemon and my shallot had gone bad. So I had to make a grocery store trip. I also got some salami and mozzarella cheese, so if I screwed the pooch on the chicken I could still make pizza. :)

I must say, in the end it turned out pretty damn good. Here is what I learned:

• The Joy recipe said it would make 3-4 chicken breasts, but it was really only enough for three. Luckily I only had three.
• When they say saute four minutes on each side, they mean it. I flipped one early out of paranoia, but I was wrong. And I made lots of cuts to see how the inside was doing. However, four minutes on each side was exactly right.
• Three tablespoons of lemon is enough. Don't put four.
• Use this truffle salt instead of regular sea salt. It's awesome.
• Use the minimum amounts of better in the ranges they suggest.

It wasn't the best wine pairing, but it was cheap!

2001 Castello Sonnino SanLeone

Sunday once again found me singing the praises of Tuscany. Vinny had us over for dinner and, since he has been known, on occasion, to cook in the Italian style, I decided I had best bring an Italian wine. After many minutes in the cellar, I decided to try the 2001 Castello Sonnino SanLeone, another Super Tuscan.

The blend on this wine was a bit unexpected: Merlot, Sangiovese and Petite Verdot. As a result the wine was darker-purple in color than most Sangiovese based wines. The wine was very rich, with licorice and minerals very apparent, in that order. I would comment on how it went with the food, but we finished it long before the meal was served. This wine was $28 and Parker gave it 91pts. Apparently the Sonnino family has a long history of inconsistent wine making, but they have renewed drive and a new winemaker and have begun producing consistently good wines.

This is a very unique wine, at least in my experience and I think I'll be looking for more of it soon.

2004 Gaja Ca'Marcanda Promis

Sangiovese blended with Merlot and Syrah by winemakers who truly know what they're doing makes this wine a Super Tuscan in both the literal and classification senses. This wine, the 2004 Gaja Ca'Marcanda Promis is pretty much everything I look for in an Italian wine. Fruit and spice in the nose, fruit and leather in the taste and smooth on the back end. You can really taste the unmistakable elegance of the sangiovese. I picked this bottle up from Nabil's shop for $35. I know, it's a bit on the pricey end, but this wine is worth every penny for those who are willing to pay for quality Italian reds. All of the tastiness and none of the disappointment that seems to so often accompany Brunellos.

We drank this with pasta in a garlic-cream-tomato sauce (with lots of garlic; I've got Sara tuned to my garlic-needs) and it was a great match-up. I would think almost any pasta will compliment this wine. It was a bit young-tasting and really opened up after the first hour, so I'd recommend buying a case and letting them age over the next five years, tasting them at intervals to track their progress.

2004 Justin Cabernet Sauvignon

I love it when my wine club wines are awesome.

Justin is the only winery of which I am currently a club member. That's not because I think they are the only one worth joining... it's just that I can only afford so much wine. The first time I had the Iscosceles I fell in love. It was teh awesome.

The other night Sara and I decided to open one of the 2004 Justin Cabernet Sauvignon bottles that came in the last shipment. I am happy to report that it was everything I've come to expect from this producer. The wine was a wonderful dark purple, the kind you can't see through when you hold it up to the light. There was fruit--cherry, blackberry--on the front and lots of oak in the back. It really made my night.

We drank the wine with Vegetable soup. Which seems like an odd pairing, but the soup had chunks of steak in it. I guess, maybe, technically, it wasn't what a purist would define as Vegetable soup. Anyway, it was a pretty decent pairing.

2005 Columbia Winery Cellar Master's Riesling

Got this for a guest. It was around $10. It's pure sweet, cheap crap.

2004 Domaine de Piaugier Sablet

Lucas and Jen came over for dinner last Sunday. Sara made a crab and ricotta stuffed manicotti (which was excellent). Tradition would dictate that I should open a white wine of some sort, but I just didn't have any. That's not true, I have some, but I didn't want to open them. So I decided to pull a southern Rhone wine out of the cellar.

The 2004 Domaine de Piaugier Sablet (appellation Cotes de Rhone Villages) was perfectly suited for the task. I picked it up for $10 a bottle. The wine was a wonderful drinker; well-suited to accompany the crab. Lots of blackberry in the front and just a hint of pepper in the finish. The wine is aged in concrete casks, so there's no oak to it. Incredibly smooth for a wine at any price point, but especially this one. I'm a convert. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up some more.

french wines

I have two french wines I need to review, a CDP and a Rhone wine. I'll be posting those as soon as I get some free time. In the mean time, Nabil is tasting some interesting looking french wines this friday at Seattle Wine Co. If you get a chance, you should head over and check them out. I'll be there when I can get free of work.

Nabil says:
"Friday, February 9th, 4pm - 630pm - FRENCH WINE TASTING - Unbelievable French wines, come taste the 2004 Janasse Cuvee Chaupin Chateauneuf du Pape, 2005 Janasse Vin de Pays Principaute d'Orange "CDP", 2003 Calvet-Thunevin Les Dentelles, 2003 Calvet-Thunevin Hugo and the 2004 Calvet-Thunevin Cuvee Constance. These wines are amazing and you will fall madly in love with them. "

screw tops

Yesterday The Washington Post posted an article on screw tops. In summary it says that people think screw tops are for cheap wine because only cheap wines have screw tops; expensive wines are going to have screw tops because less wine will go bad due to cork issues; it's hard to change peoples minds once they associate cheap with something.

Most of this is obvious. Personally, I like the whole process of removing a cork. I don't mind buying wines with screw tops. What I hate is bringing a wine with a screw top to a resturaunt and then paying a corkage fee. I paid $20 for you to twist off the cap? Down with corkage fees.

There's also a bit about an expensive NZ Merlot going "pop." I'm not sure what that's all about. Maybe I just haven't been drinking enough expensive NZ wines, but I generally associate corks going "pop" with bubbly wine.

2005 Portteus Zinfandel

Portteus is a 74 acre, family operated winery in Washington's Yakima Valley. Their winery is very scenic and they have big fuzzy dogs. But that's not the real story here. The real story here is their Zinfandel.

I got the bottles at the Winery. I remember hitting the Zin in the tasting room--I hadn't had any coffee yet and it woke me up. Then a few months later I opened the bottle and poured some for some friends. My friend Don took one sip, squished up his nose, let out a moan crossed with a "yuk" and put the glass down, never to taste it again. He's not a red wine fan.

Oh. My. God. The 2005 Portteus Zinfandel is a monster. I mean, it's huge. I don't know how the wine fits in the bottle. You want pepper? You got it. You want to taste the rocks in the soil? This is the ultimate expression of the soil.

You want a wine that can stand up to The Man? This is a wine that can beat down anything. In fact, you'll need to eat something fairly strong with this wine.

(Those of you who don't know, The Man is a hot sauce made from, in no particular order: pure capsicum powder, Mexican insanity peppers, transmission fluid, and tear gas; further reading here.)

This is probably the most unique wine I have tasted in Washington state. At $26, you need to have some of this wine in your collection.

why buy expensive wine?

Slate has an article today on one man's pursuit of a rare $700 wine. This is a good read for those of you who ask questions like, "is that $100 wine really that much better than this $10 wine?" This might give you some insight on why someone would be willing to spend so much money on a single bottle of wine.

The most expensive bottle I have ever bought has been the various vintages of Penfold's Grange at about $225.

What is the most expensive bottle you have ever bought?

2004 Vieux Chevrol Lalande de Pomerol

This weekend I visited another character in my cast of wine-snobbery: Garagiste. Those who don't know, Garagiste is a Seattle-based importer of limited production and good-value wines. The way it works, as far as I know, is this: you get on their e-mail list, when you see something go by that you want, you reply and say how many you'd like to order. Then every once in a while, you call them up, make an appointment to pick-up and go see what you got. It's kind of like Christmas every time I go.

To celebrate my good friend Don getting a new job, we had breakfast Saturday at Coastal Kitchen. Since it was breakfast, only scanned their wine list briefly, but I did note that they have half-priced wine nights on Tuesdays. The breakfast was excellent as well--I got a ginormous portion of blueberry marscapone coffee-cake. The fresh squeezed orange juice was welcome as well.

After breakfast we went to Garagiste to perform my semi-annual pick-up. I got lots of goodies. And just like Christmas, I had to open one now. So when Ben's wife called last night asking if I wanted to go to dinner at their place, the perfect opportunity presented itself. I brought along a bottle of the 2004 Vieux Chevrol Lalande de Pomerol, which I got from Garagiste for $18. We drank it alongside an Australian meat pie and raw carrots.

This is what Gargiste had to say about the wine, and I have nothing to add, except it goes great with Australian meat pie:

"Vieux Chevrol is one of those important properties that remain a beautiful jewel in the face of sandpaper. They are a one of a kind winery and they have more in common with Trotanoy or Lafleur than one may imagine (without the new oak). This wine bridges the gap between Romanee St. Vivant, Pomerol and some form of satiny, sultry Syrah. It is light to medium bodied, bright red cherry in color and owes its pedigree to its place as well as to the owners of the property that allow the wine to express itself without heavy extraction or color - all with the velvety sap of a Grand Cru Burgundy. A gorgeous wine that is as special as it gets from this area."

So, if you can find some of this excellent Bordeaux, please pick one up for your enjoyment.

Ben Strikes Back

This is a blatant plug for my friend Ben, who has been mentioned on this blog several times. Ben and I have shared many bottles, and I respect his opinions and recommendations. He is Australian, however, so beware his bias toward the Aussie wines. That man loves a Shiraz...

Anyway, here's his blog which is an obviously inferior response to mine. :)

2000 DeLille Chaleur Estate

Not to be outdone by his brother-in-law, Sara's uncle brought a bottle of the 2000 DeLille Chaleur Estate to help celebrate Sara's mother's birthday. The winery that Parker so famously dubbed "the Lafite-Rothschild of Washington," DeLille has never let me down and this was no exception. For a Bordeaux-style blend of Cab, Merlot and Cab Franc, the wine comes out very dark in the glass (which I like). Fruit-forward and a good finish. Definitely a wine that deserves to be drank with food. I can't say enough good stuff about Delille.

My first experience with Delille was St. Valentine's day last year. Sara and I had a bottle of the 1999 Delille Doyenne Syrah with dinner. This turned out to be the perfect wine to drink with Ragu of Wild Boar. My next experience was the D2, simply because it is affordable and it lived up to the expectations the Doyenne set.

You know, when I pay off my student loans, I may just join their wine club.

1998 Behrens & Hitchcock Merlot

Sara's father brought a 1998 Behrens & Hitchcock Merlot over to help celebrate Sara's mother's birthday. Up front I have to say it's a great winery and an obviously well made wine. And I love a good Merlot. One of my favorite wine's is the PlumpJack Merlot and if I could afford it I would drink it every night. That said, the majority of Merlots (where the wine is overwhelmingly Merlot; I often love blends that involve Merlot) just do not do it for me and this was one of those wines. It was smooth--not too tannic--and the label is very pretty. But I can't really say much more for it.

2000 Stag's Leap Estate Reserve Cabernet

The other night we had dinner with Mitch and Sarah at Cafe Flora. Those of you who have not experienced Cafe Flora, you should check it out. I am not a vegetarian--in fact I generally don't consider it dinner unless a large land animal died--but I appreciate good service and finely crafted food, no matter what it is.

A quick glance at Cafe Flora's wine list didn't reveal anything I especially felt like paying for that night, so I decided to let my friends pick up the corkage fee and bring my own wine. I entereed the cellar and came out with my last bottle of 2000 Stag's Leap Estate Reserve Cabernet.

At this point I will introduce a new character in my little blog-narrative: Nabil. Nabil owns Seattle Wine Co., which is located on 130th in Bellevue. 2000 wasn't the best year for Napa Valley wines. Somehow Nabil got a close-out deal on the 2000's and recognized that, even though it may have not been the best vintage ever, a well-made wine is still a well-made wine. Raphael and I picked up several 6-bottle cases for $25 / bottle. This was truely an excellent deal.

The wine itself was great. One of my favorites. The tannins were mellow and the wine was complex. A hint of vanilla on the finish. Not as much oak as I generally like (I'm an oak-freak). It's 98% cab with just 2% merlot.

If you have this wine, you may as well drink it now; I don't think any further aging will get you anything.

how to buy wine

I found this guide to buying, ordering, pairing and tasting wine quite interesting.

I will be posting more wine review/experiences tonight. I have a backlog that includes Stag's Leap and Delille, among others.

The Ball Buster (round 2) and Columbia Crest Merlot

It snowed in Seattle yesterday. This is always a huge disaster, as it generally never snows here. The abundance of rear wheel drive cars where I work doesn't help either. Trying to leave campus yesterday was impossible until way into the evening. To pass the time, we started drinking the wines we could find.

My esteemed colleague (let's call him 'Clint') happened to have one of two bottles of the 2005 Ball Buster Shiraz in his car that he had bought on my advice. He had tried the other bottle previously and agreed it was a great wine for the price. So we drank it. I enjoyed it as much as the first time. Bold, fruity, smooth. Not a real big wine, not real mineral-ly. And at 15.5% it definitely livened things up.

Then another colleague of mine (let's call her 'Lum') procured a bottle of the 2002 Columbia Crest Merlot. And a corkscrew, which we didn't previously have (The Ball Buster is a screw-cap). It wasn't bad at all. It was smooth, and that bottle emptied just as quickly as the first one. I have no idea how much it cost, but I wouldn't pay more than $10 for it. Whoever donated that--thank you very much.

A Tale of Three Wines (and Three Australians)

Last night we went over to Ben's house to meet his parents who were visiting from Australia. That explains the three Australians (Ben's wife is from Washington).

Now for the more interesting part where I talk about the three wines we drank. First was a local find from their recent expedition to Leavenworth (a small town in Washington that decided one day that they would get more tourism revenue if they adopted a Bavarian theme). The Icicle Ridge wine that we drank was an interesting blend of Merlot, a grape I have never heard of, and Cab Franc. I am usually skeptical of tourist-town wineries (outside of the Napa ones, of course), but it was actually very good. A bit of mineral taste, but smooth and pleasant. Not sure what it was called -- my cell phone camera pic I took is too blurry to read. Their website is terrible and doesn't bother to have pictures of the labels, so that was no help either.

We moved on to the 2005 Balboa Cabernet that I brought. This was another Washington value wine. I picked up three bottles for $8 each. Still a little young, it needed a long time to open up: approx. 8 hours (!). But the tannins were mellow, the fruit was forward and I would recommend this wine to anyone who wants a decent cab to drink with any normal meal during the week.

Lastly Ben opened a 1999 Rosemount GSM for us on the theory that since his Mom and I were both over, it was only fitting. Now I know exactly how long one needs to sit on this wine for it to come into fullness: eight years. The wine was excellent, as always, but Ben's restraint in letting it mellow in his cellar this long made it the best GSM I have ever drank. Dark color, very smooth, no tannins at all to speak of, oaky, earthy, a hint of mineral from the rocky soil... a spectacular wine. Current vintages go for about $25 at Costco.

2003 CRS Klingele Vineyard Syrah

I've recently had the pleasure of tasting two of C. R. Sandidge's wines: the 2003 Tri*umph and tonight the 2003 Klingele Vineyard Syrah. Another Washington syrah, it was much more exciting than the previously mentioned Isenhower. A dark in color and full in body, it really needs some decanting time before drinking, but as it opens up the wine is amazing.

I had the Tri*umph a long time ago, so I don't remember the details other than it was a very unique wine that I really enjoyed. I have another bottle in the cellar, so in a few years I'll be able to give it the review it deserves. In the mean time, pick some up if you can.

I must say, the CRS web page is one ugly site. 1998 wants its graphics and layout back.

2004 Isenhower River Beauty Syrah

This 2004 Isenhower Syrah from the Horse Heaven Hills appellation of Washington was disappointing. The wine makers had some skill, you can tell that, but it there was almost no flavor and it burned on the back-end. I would seek to spend my $32 elsewhere.

2001 Red Diamond Shiraz

Previously I mentioned the Red Diamond Cab and tonight I was able to try the Red Diamond Shiraz. It is apparently not widely sold in stores but most can order it. Also about $8, this wine is an incredible value. It's a great Washington syrah for the price. It doesn't have any of the burn that the Cab displayed, and it can probably bottle age for a good while only improving.

If you've been drinking the el-cheapo Rosemount Estate, then stop and buy this instead. You'll be buying local and, imho, buying a better wine.

2004 Delille D2

The Lafite-Rothschild of Washington State. Every wine I've had by Delille I've liked a lot. The Doyenne will always have a special place in my heart as one of the great Syrah's I've had. However it is the D2 that we had with dinner last night. We did the prix fix dinner at Cafe Juanita, which included quite a range of food--beef tongue, fois gras, veal, duck... so it was hard to pick a wine. The D2 is Delille's second bottling of their Bordeaux blend. It's a great all-around wine and most restaurants around here have it for about $65 making it relatively affordable.

The prix fix menu was a 10 course meal, but our waiter somehow managed to skip a course for us. In return he comp'd us a bottle of some Italian wine that I neglected to remember. It was nice, and a good wine, but we had to drive home, so we barely made a dent in it.