November Wine Swines Tasting

Alright, the event just ended, and Annette is not here so I can get on the computer.

Wines for tonight's event were acquired by Todd and Gordon. We had several great ideas for themes, with the idea that we would spend a bit of the surplus in the slush fund (but not on high end Chardonnay, right Steph?). However, we talked about the subject matter and prevaricated for so long that we ran out of time to do a strategically coordinated event. The theme of the tasting ended up being three wines that Todd wanted to try, and three that Gordon wanted to try. But you know what? It worked. My wines were 1 to 3, and Todd's were 4 to 6. We had 15 attendees.

Wine 1 - this one was dark ruby, and slightly bricky around the edges. The nose started a bit raisiny, and was definitely funky. After a while a really strong toasty smell emerged that was quite pleasant. The wine had l/m acid, and tannins that at first I thought were fairly soft. Ripe red cherry fruit, with a medium finish that was a tad herbal. After it sat for a while the palate became a bit more complex, with some fig and chocolate notes coming out. The tannins also became more pronounced. An interesting wine that will get better with time. 15 pts.

Wine 2 - dark ruby all the way. The nose is currant, and it has a cool sort of red fruit minty note, and is a tad herbal. Very nice nose. l/m to m acid, similar tannins, dk currant fruit and a definite cola note. The wine has a somewhat light texture, which is interesting balanced with the flavours. Definitely cab, but it has cool climate characteristics. I like it. 16 pts.

Wine 3 - inky. Nose starts smoky and sulfury, with a vague chemical note. Stays smoky as far as I am concerned. l/m acid, relatively soft tannins, plum fruit with a minerally note. The finish seems a bit odd to me. 13 pts.

Wine 4 - dark ruby all the way. The nose is dark currant, with a mix of cola and vanilla. I really like this nose. Excellent. Textbook california cab - oops, am I giving it away? Unfortunately, the palate does not live up to the nose. l/m acid, close to m tannins, red fruit that turns in the mid palate to a sort of fuzzy tannin finish with little flavour. Too bad, so much potential for a crazy high score. 15 pts.

Wine 5 - dark ruby again. I detect a whiff of acetone (Dave I says VA), but there is also vanilla and fruit and an herbal note. l/m acid, close to m tannins, with an intense currant mocha flavour. Wow, quite a mouthful. Crap, if we mixed the nose of 4 with this palate, we would have a winner. As it is, 15 pts.

Wine 6 - dark ruby again. The nose has currant fruit, but also a note of mint, stalk, and oak. Very nice. l/m acid, similar tannins, dark cherry fruit and mocha cola notes. Long chocolate finish. This reminds me of a high quality california merlot. I like it. 15.5 pts, close to 16.

I guessed that 4 and 5 were California Cabs, and 6 was a California Merlot. My favourite was 2, followed by 6. Least favourite was 3.

The group preferred 4 (6 first place votes). 2 was the second favourite. 1 was the overwhelming least favourite with 7 votes. I think the old world funk in wine 1, definitely an acquired taste, was not obviously not popular.

Wine 1 was the 2004 Poggio Il Castellare Brunello di Montalcino. Brunello is Italian for expensive sangiovese. Brunello is an area in Tuscany that produces heavier, more intense sangio's than Chianti, and the wines are usually pretty pricey. The wine spectator gave this wine 96 points, and it cost $45 at Costco. You don't get to try a 96 point wine everyday, so this was an experience.

Wine 2 was the 2005 Whitehall Lane Napa Cab. $40. A good producer that I have liked in the past. Wine Enthusiast gave this 93 pts. A solid wine.

Wine 3 was the 2006 Teusner Ebenezer Road Shiraz from the Barossa Valley in Australia. Regular $30, on sale for $15. Parker gave it 93 pts. Given the rating, I was disappointed.

Wine 4 was the 2003 Gallo of Sonoma Estate Cabernet. $40.

Wine 5 was the 2004 Trefethen Cabernet. $46.

Wine 6 was the 2005 Beaulieu Vineyards Tapestry, which is a meritage blend. Todd acquired this somewhere for $30, which is an excellent price. I have enjoyed this wine in the past, and I expect to enjoy this vintage for a while.

That is all for now.

Gordon

Review #1

Trying something new - a real time tasting note.

Picked up a red wine at Bevmo yesterday that was one sale, thought I would try it and see if acqusition of more is warranted. This is a product that has been well reviewed, points well into the 90's, and regularly sells for $20+ but was on sale for $17. No, not a five cent wine.

OK, just took it out of the Vinotemp (which means it is cool, well below room temp) and opened it. Screw cap.

Colour is dark, almost inky, with ruby right to the edge.

Nose if fairly tight, with a definite smoky edge. This has just been opened, so the nose may have to develop.

In the mouth, there is medium acid. Tannins are there but soft, in the low to low/medium range. The fruit is red cherry and plum, with a slight herbal resiny note. The fruit is ripe but the amount of acid makes it seem crisp. The finish has a mineral and black pepper edge.

I'll give it a rest and play a short video game with Lincoln.

Back to it after 20 minutes, vanilla and coffee notes have come out on the nose. Maybe a hint of something floral as well. The palate is similar but a bit lusher in the mouth as it warms up. Abit of mocha and coffee in the mid palate. A black licorice note starts to develop near the end, along with the mineral bit. Very nicely balanced, with good structure for food.

I give this 15.5 pts, close to 16. If I was scoring it out of 100, it would be 89 or 90.

The wine is the 2006 d'Arenberg "The Footbolt" Shiraz. Australia, from McLaren Vale. 14.5 % alcohol. I like the lively, fresh style that is not the common heavy, cloying and over oaked Aussie shiraz. Good food wine. I suggest that it be aged for another few years. for $17, I recommend it.

Scary Wines

15 adventurous and hardy Wine Swines gathered on Halloween for the "scary wine tasting". Interesting food accompaniments added to the general festive atmosphere.

We had two whites and five reds. The scary part turned out to be either the name or the label.

First white - p/m to m gold. Nose starts out nutty, tutti frutti smell develops and gets stronger. l/m acid, some residual sugar, tangerine melon flavour and a nutty finish. 14 pts. This was the 2006 Beck Hartweg Pinot Gris "Frankstein Vineyard" from Alsace. $30.

Second white - m to m/d gold. Smoky toasty nose, with hints of rubber. Some say the dreaded perm solution. m acid, rubbery taste, some apple and citrus. 14.5 pts. This was the 2005 Black Widow Pinot Gris from BC. About $20. This wine was bought a couple of years ago and has really changed. I really thought it was a Riesling, the rubbery note wtih some apple would have made it a fine example. Pinot Gris would have been far down the list of possibles.

First red - d ruby. Nose is raisiny and toasty, with notes of clove and cinnamon. A bit heavy handed on the oak. l/m to m acid, similar tannins, ripe dark berry fruit. Not as ripe as I expected from the nose. Oak is heavy on the fnish. 13 pts. This was the 2007 Twisted Oak "River of Skulls", a rhone blend. About $25.

Second red - inky. Nose is sweet coconut and dk cherry, but overall fairly light. l/m t m acid, similar tannins, nice cherry berry fruit and restrained oak but quick finish. 13.5 pts. This was the 2006 Bogle Phantom, mostly petit sirah. $16.

Third red - d ruby. Nose is smoky, bit of burnt rubber. l/m acid, l/m to m tannins, dk plum and smoky notes. Fairly long finish. 15 pts. This was from Washington, an Owen Roe "Sinister Hand", a rhone blend. $23.

Fourth red - d ruby. Nose is a mix of vanilla, dark bramble and currant. l/m to m acid, l/m tannins, red berry fruit and a hint of stalk. Nicely structured. 15.5 pts. This was the 2006 Dead Letter Office Shiraz from Australia. $20.

Fifth red - inky. Nose is raisiny and ripe. l/m acid, m tannins, rich ripe brambly fruit with integrated oak. 15 pts. This was the 2007 Orin Swift "The Prisoner" zin. $35.

The Prisoner got 4 first place and three second place votes, so it was the overall winner. The Frankstein Vineyard Pinot Gris got 4 first place and two second place votes, so it was a close second. The Dead Letter Office Shiraz got three first place and five second place votes, so it came third.

The least favourite was the Black Widow with five negative votes (the perm solution thing is not a big seller). However, the first two reds were not popular either and each got 4 negative votes.

There you have it. Another fabulous event.

Steak and ??

On the menu, rib-eyes about 1 inch thick and lightly seasoned with sea salt, garlic powder, black pepper and basil. Grilled. Potatoes, broccoli and a squash stuffingy thing on the side. The wines:

1 - ruby red with no brick. Vanilla on the nose, with a dried brush wood hint that comes out, and dk fruit possibly currant. Fair amount of tannin here, but not aggressive. Fairly well integrated. Dk cherry fruit and nice touch of oak. The steak cuts the tannin, and more of the fruit/coffee note comes out. Very nice. Probably 16.

2 - ruby red with bricky edge. Wow, this has an unmistakeable herbal, cool climate nose. Not quite bell pepper, but definitely leafy with olive and tobacco notes. Does not have the cedar, cigar box and burnt match notes of Bordeaux though. I love the nose. In the mouth it has soft tannins, good acid, and a dk cherry fruit with a continuation of the herbal, olive notes. Good use of oak here as well. I thought this was an 04 BC Meritage, with a good quantity of merlot. 16+

Both went well with steak. I think 1 probably improved more with the food, whereas 2 was great by itself and the food just matched it nicely. 2 was the WOTN.

1 was an 02 Termes from Toro, Spain. 100% tempranillo. This wine surprised me with how well it had held up, I will hold off on opening the remaining ones that I have.

2 was an 02 Burrowing Owl Merlot from BC. BO merlot was one of the first high quality, hard to acquire wines in BC. They still have a good rep, and the wine has aged gracefully. Kudos to Todd for parting with it at the appropriate time.

Duck!

I forgot to post about the great duck tasting a few weeks back. After pressing our zin, Todd and Steph and I decided that dinner would be in order. Steph had purchased a duck (from Podesto's) for the occasion, and she proceeded to roast it along with potatoes, etc. I also grilled some pork chops for the not duck eaters, and we had the usual host of varied accompaniments. I had never had duck before, so it was definitely an interesting food experience. I would describe it as really intensely flavoured dark turkey meat, without the skin.

Ah, the wine. What would go with duck. Of course, Todd brought an pinot - a 02 Archery Summit (at least I think it was an 02) from Oregon. It was good, but past its prime and had a remarkable amount of tannin for a pinot. Steph brought a syrah purchased at FW that was alot like a pinot - the name now escapes me but will pop into my head at some point. I opened an oddball mystery wine that everyone agreed was indeed odd. It was a 07 Deol Pinot Noir / Marechal Foch blend from Vancouver Island. Surprisingly, nobody identified it correctly! A novelty but not something I would search out again.

The wine of the night with the main course, opened by yours truly, was an 02 Black Hills Nota Bene meritage blend from BC. Nota Bene has become sort of a BC cult wine - very difficult to find. When Annette and I were at the winery in 2004 (the last year that the wine was available for sale at the winery instead of selling out on release) we bought half a case of the 02. This wine has aged beautifully and had a lovely herbal olive type nose with some dried earth. A bit of that unmistakable old cab smell. Soft fruit and tannins, mixed with the herbal spicy earth and tobacco notes. A good match with the duck.

For dessert, we had a baked apple dish that went outstandingly well with the wine that Todd opened - an 03 Jackson Triggs Riesling icewine from BC. This wine was stupendous when we tried it three years ago at a conference in BC, and it was still fab. It had lost a bit of intensity, but gained a gorgeous bricky colour and still had that unmistakable icewine nose and sweet/sour flavour. Great stuff, and a superb match with the dessert.

Musings

Had bought a few bottles of a cheap Nero d'Avola at TJ's a while back, and went to open one recently. After taking out the cork I turned away to put the cork on the counter, and when I turned back the bottle was foaming over. Like sparkling wine or beer. Not something I have ever experienced - I mean, I have had wines that are a bit spritzy (or "frizzante"), but this was something else. After clean up, I opened another one. Same thing. Then the last one. Same thing again. Clearly the wine was not stable and was refermenting in the bottle. Interesting.

Kudos to TJ's. Took the three bottles back with no receipt, they looked up the normal prices and gave me a refund.

Last night in SF with Annette, we went out for dinner before going to the Melody Gardot concert at the Palace of Fine Arts (great singer, by the way, but not much of a performer). Dinner was at a little pub style place near the concert called Liverpool Lils. Had a bottle of zin called Teira from the 06 vintage. This is a Sonoma product. I had never heard of it, but it was actually pretty good. Only 13.5% alc which is hard to find these days in a zin.

7 days until the scary wine tasting.......

09 Vintage Update

for those that care, the 2009 Tri Swines Wine Zinfandel is fermenting nicely, more than half way to dry with good colour. Let's hope for the best (ie: the the winemakers don't screw it up).

Enjoyed a 2005 Antelope Ridge Chardonnay last night (from BC). Nice nut and subtle white fruit notes, not too oaky, somewhat euro in character. This winery is run by a couple of old school types (from Germany, I think) that have their own way of doing things. Not for the "give me a big fat tropical fruit chard" types. Good with roast chicken.

Pinots at FW tonight with the infamous Alan doing the pouring.

Upcoming - the October swines "scary wine" tasting on Halloween will soon be here.

Cedar Creek Cab

about three years ago, while touring thru the Okanagan Valley in BC, we went to Cedar Creek Estate winery for a tasting. While there they pointed out "the last 6 bottles available" of the 02 Cab Sauv Platinum Reserve, which apparently had won the Canadian wine of the year competition and was, by all reports, supposed to be quite good. Jan, one of the Canadian wine swines, immediately said "we'll take them". Todd got 2, I took 2, and Jan took 2.

Last Friday I opened the first of mine. Notes:

dark ruby with garnet rim. Nose is dry tobacco, leafy, with dark currant fruit. A bit of that older cab smell (sorry, I don't have a better description than that. You know it when you smell it). l/m to m acid, m tanns, dark currant fruit and vanilla. Notes of dried herbs and cola. Intense mix of flavours, a pomegranite hint starts to appear. Long finish. This wine is crazy good.

There you go. This wine was definitely worthy of whatever award it won. Much better than the corked wine that Todd opened. However, he made up for it with his backup wine - a 2003 Pride Cabernet Franc that was a monster, to say the least.

The next day Tri Swines Wines picked zinfandel for our 2009 vintage, and then we racked the 08 vintage of Dornfelder and put it on some oak. The garage smells like a winery again - awesome!

Updates - September Tasting

but before we get to that, at some point in the September I opened up a 2003 Dom du Gros Nore Red Bandol. Bought this at Wine Wizards several years ago. It had lovely garrigue on the nose, lots of dk cherry fruit and herbal spice notes on pal. Long finish. Fabulous. Restores my faith in cellaring wine.

as for the September tasting, it was again a couple of varietals and a couple of countries.

wine 1 - m to m/d gold, rubber and lychee on the nose, sweet and sour kind of thing. l/m to m acid, rich round mouthfeel, lychee and apricot flavours. 16 pts.

wine 2 - p/m gold, lemon lime and rubber on nose. Some residual sugar, l/m to m acid, rubber and green apples, med intensity and finish. 15 pts.

wine 3 - m gold, light nose. m to m/h acid, sour lemon lime and green apple, slightly bitter. 13 pts.

wine 4 - m gold, lychee and hazelnut nose. L/m acid, residual sugar, m body, sweet finish, apricot flavours. 15.5 pts.

wine 5 - m gold. Tutti frutti and lemon lime nose. m acid, bitter rindy note, lemon zest. Simple finish. 13.5 pts.

wine 6 - m to m/d gold. Light lemon lime, bit of lychee, gets stronger. l/m to m acid, rich lychee notes. 15.5 pts.

wine 7 - p to p/m gold, sulfury and rubbery. m acid, rubbery lemon powerhouse. 14.5 pts.

Group favourite was wine 2, followed by wine 1 and then wine 4. Least favourite was wine 3.

wine 1 - 07 Zind Humbrecht Gewurz (Alsace). $20 (this is a great price for this wine).

wine 2 - 07 Monchhof Spatlese Riesling (Germany). $16

wine 3 - 07 Zind Humbrecht Riesling (Alsace) $19

wine 4 - 07 Pfeffinger Spatlese Gewurz (Germany) $20. Another good value.

wine 5 - 07 Lucien Albrecht Riesling (Alsace) $15

wine 6 - 07 Lucien Albrecht Reserve Gewurz (Alsace) $17

wine 7 - 07 Eitelsbergher Karthauserhofberg Riesling (Germany) $22

2007 is considered to be a very good vintage for Alsace and most of Germany. So this was an interesting comparison of the two varietals as they are made in different places. My preference was for the three gewurz's over any of the rieslings.

Updates - August Tasting

Okay, it's been a while. I guess September was kind of busy.

Tasting at end of August. Wines by Todd. 7 wines, I think the idea was there were two varietals and two countries involved. My notes:

wine 1 - m/d gold, slightly herbal nose with melon and some coconut. med acid, with melon and apple flavours and a spicy vanilla finish. Oak is a bit hefty on this one. 14 pts.

wine 2 - m/d gold, rubbery notes with maybe a bit of lychee on the nose. m to m/h acid, green apple and lemon. l/m body. 14 pts.

wine 3 - m gold. Light nose, maybe a bit of lychee and nut. m acid, slightly sweet, mineral and lemon, m body, kind of simple. 13 pts.

wine 4 - m gold, soapy floral nose. m acid, sharp minerally lemon steely flavour. light body. 13 pts.

wine 5 - p/m gold, slightly skunky floral nose (some say perm solution). m acid, mineral with a slightly bitter resiny note. Good body, pear finish. 14 pts.

wine 6 - m/d gold. Woody slightly musty nose to start, turns to melon. l/m acid, vanilla, apple flavours, some melon. 14 pts.

wine 7 - p to m gold. Floral, with a hint of smoke, perfumy. l/m acid, mineral almost salty notes, nutty. This one is a bit odd. 13 pts.

wine 1 = 06 Rodney Strong Chard - $24. This one is more than a bit disappointing.

wine 2 - 08 Crios Torrontes (Susan Balbo). $15. Decent value.

wine 3 - 08 Zolo Torrontes. $15

wine 4 - 018 Filus Torrontes $7.29

wine 5 - 08 Alamos Torrontes. $10. This has to be the value winner for the night.

wine 6 - 06 Keenan Chard. $30. Ouch.

wine 7 - 08 Tamari Torrontes Reserva, $14.

Conclusion - Torrontes is an upcoming varietal, one to pay attention to. Fairly decent value, as is common with Argentinian wines. The two cal chards did not fare well in the value category.

King Estate Competition

Three years ago after the Wine Educators conference in Eugene, Todd and I toured King Estate and had a great tasting of their new releases and older library wines. Two pinots that we particularly enjoyed were from the 03 vintage - a Hyland Vineyard, and a Pfeiffer Vineyard. At the time, I rated both wines as very good with the following notes:

Pfeiffer - dark ruby, nutty and somewhat weedy pinot nose. Spicy dk fr, l/m acid and l/m to m tannin, intense red cherry and nutty spice.

Hyland - dark ruby, almost inky. Spicy dark cherry nose, hint floral. L/m acid, l/m to m tannin, dark cherry fruit and long finish.

At the time I preferred the Pfeiffer by a bit, and Todd preferred the Hyland (hmmm, California palate perhaps.....?). We bought one of each and vowed to retaste the wines at some point in the future under appropriate circumstances. Since that time the wines have been stored in identical conditions.

Last Friday night was the night, with a menu of grilled salmon and vegetables and mushroom risotto to accompany the wines. The food was excellent, and the wines, served blind of course, were distinctly different but both very good as well. The results were:

Wine 1 - m/d ruby, hint of garnet on rim. Light cherry nose with a spicy slightly woody note, like dried herbal tea. M acid, l/m tannin, slight green herbal note with red cherry fruit and tea character. Soft round mouthfeel. Very elegant pinot, fairly long finish. 16 out of 20.

Wine 2 - m/d ruby, ruby rim. Exotic cherry spice on nose at first, dark fruit, a slight vanilla oaky character starts to come out. L/m to m acid, close to m tannins, chalky red cherry and lively oaky spicy notes, fairly long finish. Also 16 out of 20, on final reflection maybe a hair under 16.

Todd's cryptic notes indicate that wine 1 was soft, with a slight tea note and some heat. With the food he felt that the wine was overpowered initially, but later paired nicely although not as sophisticated as wine 2. He felt wine 2 had a stronger nose, vibrant fruit and more tannin. With the food the wine was smooth and elegant.

Which was the Pfeiffer, and which was the Hyland? What do you think? Todd preferred wine 2. Our unbiased observer, Annette, gave the nod to wine 2. I, alone again in the wine wilderness, preferred wine 1 by a nose as I felt it was a more complex elegant wine.

In the end it seems our preferences had not changed. Yes, wine 1 was the Pfeiffer. Interesting experiment and very educational. Next up, a tasting of the various vineyards of DRC!! I wish.

I Knew I Would Miss One

It was in the fridge - a 03 Les Arums de Lagrange - white bordeaux. This had a honey character with a bit of nuttiness, a tad oily. I thought it might be an alsace product. Good.

Annette is currently turning the leftover veggies into a corn chowder sort of thing. Yum.

The BBQ Wines

Started out on the deck in the searing heat. Jon was pouring a white and playing guess the grape. A high acid wine with a mineral bite, some nuttiness, and sharp white fruit. Kind of chablis like, but not quite. It's a ......... apple wine from Findleton Winery in El Dorado. Quite nice (but not after eating chocolate). Then a 08 See Ya Later Ranch (BC) rose called Nelly, supposedly after the winery dog white. Very dark for a rose, lots of fruit and good balance. A 06 Gugliemo Sangio was opened, but it was still too hot for red for me, so on to the 07 Quails Gate (BC) Riesling - lots of acid in this baby too. Deelightful. Then another rose arrived, this one a Thornehaven (BC) Divino - a bricky colour, perhaps a bit over the hill with oxidized notes, but still decent fruit and complexity.

Then the onslaught of reds with the meal commenced:

05 Cedar Creek (BC) Merlot/Cab - had that slightly vegetal leafy BC cab thing, very nice.

04 Chateau La Roque Pic St. Loup (FR) - a Languedoc mourvedre. This was really enjoyable, a bit of garrigue on the nose, some in the palate as well along with juicy plum/ch fruit and good balance. Really worked with the red meat.

02 Noceto Mistura 180 degree Selection - from Amador, blend of ??. I recall this as being lighter, lots of acid, tasty. But my mental notes are getting fuzzy at this point.

01 Obscurity Zin - older, port'ish nose. Raisiny fruit, might work with chocolate but I did not like with the food.

06 Mettler Cab (Lodi) - big wine, I still think Lodi cab always tastes like zin. Which is not necessarily a problem......

then of course, the dessert with

07 Weinkeller Schick Kerner Icewine - from Pfalz via TJ's - soft nose and beautiful sweet fruit followed by acid bite. Well done.

07 See Ya Later Ranch Ehrenfelser Icewine - holy crap, awesome aromatics followed by intense sweet apricot like fruit and then bang, a citric acid explosion. The WOTN.

The chocolate mousse rocked, and really should have been accompanied by port, and I toyed with the idea of opening one. This morning I was glad I did not.

G

First Post

OK, I am posting this just to see what it looks like. Official Wine Swines bbq was held last night, with numerous attendees and copious wine. On the menu, Annette's filo wrapped mushroom/pate things for appies, then dinner of tri-ti-, kebobs, lamb, pork loin, and mushroom encrusted salmon (thanks Todd for the grilling challenge). Many standout wines, more to be posted later.