Producer: Wegeler

Grapes: 100% Riesling

Appellation: Rheingau (Germany)

Vineyards: Loess/loam and clay soils

Vintage: 2006, so it’s got a bit of bottle age on it.

Winemaking: no info

Alcohol: 11.0%

Price: I paid $11.99 via Garagiste, but this normally retails for around $20.

Tasting notes: Pale, brassy color. Pretty citrus and stone fruit aromas lead the way, accented with talc and gravel notes. There’s a little pineapple juice, too, and I keep thinking it’s reminding me of Juicy Fruit gum. Round fruit flavors with a touch of sweetness (medium-dry) on the palate, but with bright acidity that makes this very fresh, and dare I say, PURE. A little crushed rock shows as well for added interest. This wine was drinking well for several days after opening.

Overall impression: This is the Germans doing what they do. And I appreciate it. I bet you would to. B

Free association:

More info:

Imported by Rudi Wiest Selections.

10,000 cases produced.

Producer: Cline Cellars

Grapes: 44% Mourvèdre, 35% Grenache, 21% Syrah

Appellation: California (AVA)

Vineyards: From the winery’s tech sheet…

“Contra Costa County provides the lion’s share of the grapes for this blend. Careful attention to the Massoni Grenache vineyard in Oakley involves cluster thinning and leaf pulling, which increases fruit concentration. Big Break Grenache is harvested from older lower yielding dry-farmed vines. The Oakley Syrah experiences warm days and cool nights. And the Mourvedre, planted in sand soil, is dry-farmed.”

Vintage: 2008

Winemaking: 9 months in dark toast French oak (25% new)

Alcohol: 15.0%

Price: Around $15

Tasting notes: I get raspberry cream and a bit of black pepper on the nose. The palate is blackberry pie filling, but with the polished mouthfeel I’ve come to expect from Cashmere (though not as luxuriously silky as the 2007). A brief bit of grip at the end that quickly morphs into a sweet, oaky finish. I don’t get the minty note I usually get in wines with fruit from Cline’s Big Break vineyard, which has eucalyptus trees adjacent to the vineyard.

Overall impression: Because of the increased presence of Mourvèdre in the blend, I wanted to like this even more than past vintages, but I have to say I liked the 2007 a bit more. But, the 2008 is another crowd-pleasing Cashmere from Cline. (Old-Worlders may want to pass) B

Free association:

(it's a Blackberry... get it?)

Image credit: 1sock via Flickr

More info:

Grape Stories/CellarTracker reviews (avg: 87 pts)

Cline donates a portion of the proceeds from every bottle of Cashmere sold to the Breast Cancer Network of Strength.

Producer: Bonny Doon Vineyards

Grapes: 100% Mourvèdre

Appellation: Says Central Coast on the bottle, but the info in the winery newsletter suggests it’s from Contra Costa County (perhaps not within that official AVA?). CCC has some of the oldest Mourvèdre vines in California.

Vineyards: Rose Vineyard – very old vines in sandy CCC soil

Vintage: 2004

Winemaking: couldn’t find any details here other than that they use “a light touch in the cellar”

Alcohol: 13.5%

Price: $18

Tasting notes: After some initial funk blows off, the nose is all crushed rock and raspberries with a smoked meat note. On the palate it has good acid and bright flavors with more red berry and cherry fruit, but with a dark streak (hinting toward blackberry and plum). It’s like a gourmet Jolly Rancher, if there were such a thing (and there should be — get on that, Thomas Keller).

Overall impression: I’m digging the minerality on the nose and the overall purity of the wine. Really good stuff. B+

Free Association: Isn’t that a badass label? I want that on a t-shirt. It reminds me of this Lizard Man drawing from the old D&D Monster Manual.

More info:

CellarTracker reviews (avg: 87 pts)

If you’re not familiar with vinho verde, you’ve got to rectify that. It’s a very light, low alcohol (<10%), slightly effervescent white white from Portugal. (Actually, it is an DOC appellation in Portugal and there are red and pink versions, but the vast majority of vinho verde that is exported is white.) It’s called vinho “verde” not because it’s actually green (like crappy American beer on March 17), but because it’s meant to be consumed young. The grapes typically used are Loureiro, Trajadura, Batoca, Arinto/Pedernã, Avesso and Azal. You can also find versions made from Alvarinho, but those are a bit of a different beast – higher alcohol levels and a few dollars more.

What vinho verde is mostly is refreshing. And goddammit I live in Texas and it’s hot. And sometimes I just want a wine that is thirst quenching and fun to drink.

But back to the headline. When I drink vinho verde, I forget about assessing it. I don’t care about flavor descriptor or scores. I just drink it. I usually keep the bottle on the table because I know I’m going to want a quick refill – and at <10% abv you can actually drink several glasses.

And if you pay more than $10 or $11, you did it wrong. You can find plenty of satisfying examples for $7 or $8, or even less.

This is what wine should be about.

—

This post was inspired by a recent dinner after I stood over the grill on a 95-degree evening on the second day of Summer. The bottle I opened was the Opala Vinho Verde (NV). In the spirit of this post, I won’t do a full VINEgeek review with grape percentages, vineyard details, etc. Instead, I’ll just hit you with a Free Association:

It’s a lifesaver when you need thirst-quenchin’
like a kiss with a lymon twist, now you know that’s kickin’

and to push deeper into the realm of geekery…

Lorca Monastrell 2008

Producer: Bodegas del Rosario

Grapes: 100% Monastrell (same grape as Mourvèdre, for newcomers). The 2006 had 30% Syrah.

Appellation: Bullas (D.O. Spain)

Vineyards: From youngish (10-20 years), dry-farmed vines at altitudes ranging from 550 to 1060 meters. The soil is clay, sand and limestone.

Winemaking: Stainless steel fermentation and 8 months in 2-year-old French and American oak

Alcohol: 13.5%

Price: $9 or $10 at Costco

My tasting notes: Sticking my nose in the glass, I get the sense of walking the aisles at a hardware store. I start in Aisle 1 with the paint thinner and other solvents. Aisle 2 is the loose nails and bolts. Aisle 3 for some lumber. Oh look, they’ve got cherry Tic Tacs at the checkout. On the palate it’s light with the same sort of dusty red fruit as the 2006 bottling, still without much pop. It disappears very quickly at the end. A very flat experience.

Overall impression: Once again, the Lorca is not fun to drink. Please don’t make this your first Monastrell if you’ve never had one. Try this one or this one or this one instead. C-

Free association:

Photo credit: D’Arcy Norman via Flickr

Here’s another Slovenian wine for the Oddball series. This one blends Welshriesling with Sauvignon Blanc. Welshriesling is not Rielsing with a funny accent. It’s an unrelated (and inferior) grape grown in places like Austria, northern Italy, and a bunch of old Iron Curtain countries: Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania and Czech Republic. According to Oz Clarke’s Grapes and Wines, it produces round, low-acid wine. Let’s see how this one comes together with Sauvignon Blanc.

Marof Beli Križ 2007

Producer: Marof

Grapes: 65% Sauvignon Blanc and 35% Welshriesling

Appellation: Prekmurje (Slovenia)

Vineyards: The name Beli Križ means white cross, which refers to an actual white cross that stands at the point where the three estate vineyards that produce the grapes for this wine come together. The vineyards are: Bodonci, Grad and Mačkovci. Soils, depending on the vineyard, are volcanic or sandy loam.

Vintage: 2007

Winemaking: Stainless steel fermentation. No oak aging.

Alcohol: 12.5%

Price: $11.83 via Garagiste

My tasting notes: The wine is very pale in color. The nose is all stone & stone fruit aromas, with a light lemony perfume. There is also a slight nuttiness. More stone and stone fruit on the palate with a lemon-lime background note and the vaguest whiff of fresh green beans. It finishes very dry with decent length. Despite the lemony citrus notes, the flavors are soft, not aggressive. To my palate on this evening, it is a bit too soft – I could use a little more brightness and acid.

Overall impression: A very drinkable and pleasant wine. Based on the blend, and what I’ve read of Welshriesling, I can’t help but think that I would enjoy the wine more with a higher percentage of Sauvignon Blanc. But it would be interesting to share with someone who finds most Sauvignon Blanc too aggressive and see what they think. Bonus points for getting to use a new diacritical mark on the blog. B-

Free association: Slovenia is in the same group as the USA in the 2010 World Cup. Their match is tomorrow. Let’s hope their defense is as soft as this wine.

More info:

Other reviews at: CellarTracker (mean: 87.7), Cork’d and The Ancient Geek.

Producer: Bodegas del Rosaroio

Grapes: 70% Monastrell and 30% Syrah

Appellation: Bullas (D.O., Spain)

Vineyards: no detail on the website

Vintage: 2006

Winemaking: I don’t think this (the ‘Tinto’) sees any oak (they have ‘Barrica’ and ‘Crianza’ bottlings that get the oak)

Alcohol: 14%

Price: About $10 at Costco

My tasting notes: Not much fruit on the nose. Instead I get chalk dust and mineral aromas and a vegetal, whats-that-funky-smell-coming-from-behind-the-couch quality. Not promising. On the palate, it’s light-bodied and thin with the suggestion of dusty red fruit and a tight, dry, short finish. “Intense odor, complex sensations” is a tagline they use on the website. I think I agree, though not in the way they probably intended.

Overall impression: Not very fun to drink. I’m not too excited about opening the 2008 now. C-

Free association: Writing about this wine makes me feel pissy like Kristen Wiig’s Aunt Linda character from SNL…

Click here for video

More info:

Wine Spectator: 86 points

Other blogger reviews at Dallas Wine Blog and Wine Belly.

Fun fact from the Bodegas del Rosario website: “in Bullas (Murcia), in the mid 19th century, [Monastrell/Mourvèdre] was also known as Casca del País.”

Carro Tinto 2008

Producer: Bodega Señorio de Barahonda. They put out 10 or 12 different bottlings of Monastrell or Monastrell blends under the Barahonda, Carro and Bellum labels, including two previous Mourvèdre Monday wines: the Barahonda Monastrell 2006 (B-) and the Nabuko 2007 (B). Based on past results, I’ll taste as many of their wines as I can find.

Grapes: 50% Monastrell, 20% Syrah, 20% Tempranillo and 10% Merlot

Appellation: Yecla, (D.O., Spain)

Vineyards: From high-altitude vineyards (2339 feet) with rocky limestone soils.

Winemaking: no oak

Alcohol: 14%

Price: $9 or $10, usually

My tasting notes: Dusty blue and black fruit on the nose with significant earthiness, minerality and barnyard funk. On the palate, the funk goes on and on, with a strong meaty/animal aspect that brings to mind that episode of Man vs. Wild when Bear Grylls snacks on a dead Zebra (I mean that in the best possible way). There are some nice smoke and pepper/spice notes.  The fruit is there, too — blackberry & plum — but it’s not playing the starring role. The wine finishes very dry with a pronounced iron/mineral character that I’m enjoying.

Overall impression: Old World fans will find a lot to like here, while I suspect New World-ers may fear the funk. Give it a good bit of air for best results. I like what it brings to the table for $10. And, while only 50% Monastrell/Mourvèdre, it delivers a lot of that grape’s character, for my palate. B/B-

Update 6/08/2010: This review was written after one evening with the bottle. The next day, I finished the other half of the bottle and it was drinking beautifully on day two. So I’m bumping it to a full B.

Free Association:

More info:

88 points Parker (Jay Miller) and 87 points IWC.

Other blogger reviews: Bottle a Day, Wine Reviews You Can Understand and Wine-Smith

This wine was another Costco pick-up. The 92-point review from Wine Spectator and the $17 price tag grabbed my attention. (I know, I know, points don’t matter…) Then the all-Spanish label added some intrigue (I couldn’t even tell what the grape varieties were). So I pulled the trigger just to see what this wine was all about.

Producer: Bodega Vistalba

Grapes: 70% Malbec and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon

Appellation: Mendoza (Argentina)

Vineyard: Finca Vistalba, Upper Mendoza River. Clay, rock and loam soils. 60 degree temperature swing day to night.

Vintage: 2005

Winemaking: 12 months in French oak barrels (% new not specified)

Alcohol: 14.5% abv

Price: $16.99 at Costco in Austin

My tasting notes: A fume-y nose of raspberry, smoke, spice and caramel has me a bit worried I could be dealing with a fat, froak bomb (I’m going to try to bring that phrase back into the VINEgeek lexicon). But on the palate, I find a solid core of minerality supporting sharp, high-toned fruit from the raspberry/blackberry end of the spectrum, with a plush mouthfeel. My wife thought it “ends with whimper” and she’s right.

Overall impression: Overall, I liked the wine and would drink it again. The minerality saves it for me. I just wish it finished stronger. B

Free association:

Couldn’t find a pic anywhere of the missed game-tying layup at the end of Game 7 vs. the Pacers in the 1995 Playoffs.

More info:

92 points, Wine Spectator

Producer: Bodegas Sierra Salinas

Grapes: Primarily Monastrell (the Spanish name for Mourvèdre), with Garnacha Tintorera (which is not Garnacha/Grenache, but the same as Alicante Bouchet), Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Appellation: Alicante (D.O., Spain)

Vineyards: 10-20 year old vines in limestone and clay soil at 600 meters

Vintage: 2006

Winemaking: 4 months in French oak (% new unknown)

Alcohol: 14%

Price: About $10

My tasting notes: The nose has a prominent dustiness coating the blueberry and chocolate notes. On the palate, it’s medium-bodied and starts off a bit rustic, but smoothes out. It features raspberry and blueberry flavors with a touch of minerality and a dry, dusty finish.

Overall impression: Dominique Roujou De Boubee, who is a consultant for Sierra Salinas and has commented here a few times, called this an “easy wine”. I agree. It is not a complex, “thinking” wine, but a pleasant and enjoyable bottle nonetheless. Worth checking out at this price. B-

Free association:

More info:

Big pub scores: 90 points from Parker and 88 points from Tanzer.

Lots of ratings at CellarTracker (avg: 87)

Imported by Eric Solomon.

A profile of the winery (including a review of this bottle) is at CataVino.