Comments for VINEgeek http://www.vinegeek.com wine is interesting. Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:11:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 Comment on Oddball Wine of the Week: La Mano Mencía by Jim/VINEgeek http://www.vinegeek.com/2010/03/oddball-wine-of-the-week-la-mano-mencia/comment-page-1/#comment-523 Jim/VINEgeek Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:11:45 +0000 http://www.vinegeek.com/?p=2316#comment-523 Jay Miller's 90 seems a little high to me. My B- is more like a 87-88, I guess. But that's why I don't use the 100-pt scale: false precision. I wasn't too surprised by the CellarTracker scores (I included mean and median because there was one guy who rated it a 70) - this is a style of wine that some people just don't like. That leaves more for me! Cheers. Jay Miller’s 90 seems a little high to me. My B- is more like a 87-88, I guess. But that’s why I don’t use the 100-pt scale: false precision. I wasn’t too surprised by the CellarTracker scores (I included mean and median because there was one guy who rated it a 70) – this is a style of wine that some people just don’t like. That leaves more for me! Cheers.

]]> Comment on Oddball Wine of the Week: La Mano Mencía by @nectarwine http://www.vinegeek.com/2010/03/oddball-wine-of-the-week-la-mano-mencia/comment-page-1/#comment-522 @nectarwine Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:19:14 +0000 http://www.vinegeek.com/?p=2316#comment-522 I think a lot of wines that start of rocky, dirty, mellow out with some decanting. 90 points $10 bucks is pretty fantastic. Looks like the reviewers on Cellar Tracker are not quite in agreement. I love the video! I think a lot of wines that start of rocky, dirty, mellow out with some decanting. 90 points $10 bucks is pretty fantastic. Looks like the reviewers on Cellar Tracker are not quite in agreement.

I love the video!

]]> Comment on Mourvedre Monday #8: Castaño Monastrell 2007 Rosado by Dominique ROUJOU DE BOUBEE http://www.vinegeek.com/2010/03/mourvedre-monday-8-castano-monastrell-2007-rosado/comment-page-1/#comment-521 Dominique ROUJOU DE BOUBEE Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:23:38 +0000 http://www.vinegeek.com/?p=2342#comment-521 Hi Jim, I've never tasted Hewitson old garden, just know it for fame (there's not so famous monastrell wines in Australia). I'm impatient to read your comment. Enjoy! Cheers Hi Jim,
I’ve never tasted Hewitson old garden, just know it for fame (there’s not so famous monastrell wines in Australia). I’m impatient to read your comment.
Enjoy!
Cheers

]]> Comment on Mourvedre Monday #8: Castaño Monastrell 2007 Rosado by Jim/VINEgeek http://www.vinegeek.com/2010/03/mourvedre-monday-8-castano-monastrell-2007-rosado/comment-page-1/#comment-519 Jim/VINEgeek Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:06:04 +0000 http://www.vinegeek.com/?p=2342#comment-519 Thanks, Dominique, for all the great info. I definitely plan to include more Bandol throughout the year (just did the Gros'Noré last week), so I'll be on the lookout for your suggestions. The lineup from Sierra Salinas looks very intriguing! I hope I can find them - I'd love to include them in the series as well. I've been looking for the Castaño red Monastrell locally, but haven't found it yet. I may have to order online. You're right to point out the age of the rosado (07). I was just excited to have found a Castaño Monastrell of any sort to include, that I wasn't thinking about the vintage. If I find an 08 or 09 I'll give it another try. I'm definitely planning to include several of the USA and Australian producers you mention. There are several I still need to acquire, but I've got the Hewitson Old Garden 05 in cellar, so look for a post on it soon. Again, thanks for all the great info. I hope you'll come back and comment some more on this series. Cheers, Jim Thanks, Dominique, for all the great info. I definitely plan to include more Bandol throughout the year (just did the Gros’Noré last week), so I’ll be on the lookout for your suggestions.

The lineup from Sierra Salinas looks very intriguing! I hope I can find them – I’d love to include them in the series as well.

I’ve been looking for the Castaño red Monastrell locally, but haven’t found it yet. I may have to order online. You’re right to point out the age of the rosado (07). I was just excited to have found a Castaño Monastrell of any sort to include, that I wasn’t thinking about the vintage. If I find an 08 or 09 I’ll give it another try.

I’m definitely planning to include several of the USA and Australian producers you mention. There are several I still need to acquire, but I’ve got the Hewitson Old Garden 05 in cellar, so look for a post on it soon.

Again, thanks for all the great info. I hope you’ll come back and comment some more on this series.

Cheers,
Jim

]]> Comment on Mourvedre Monday #8: Castaño Monastrell 2007 Rosado by Jim/VINEgeek http://www.vinegeek.com/2010/03/mourvedre-monday-8-castano-monastrell-2007-rosado/comment-page-1/#comment-518 Jim/VINEgeek Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:46:19 +0000 http://www.vinegeek.com/?p=2342#comment-518 Benito - Still on the hunt for the red. I can understand the Stormtrooper confusion, though this should have been a tip off: http://www.brianstoys.com/store/images/products/Star%20Wars/vintage/ActionFigures/Carded/AFA/POTF/Vintage_POTFAFA_4659643.jpg Benito – Still on the hunt for the red.

I can understand the Stormtrooper confusion, though this should have been a tip off: http://www.brianstoys.com/store/images/products/Star%20Wars/vintage/ActionFigures/Carded/AFA/POTF/Vintage_POTFAFA_4659643.jpg

]]> Comment on Mourvedre Monday #8: Castaño Monastrell 2007 Rosado by Dominique ROUJOU DE BOUBEE http://www.vinegeek.com/2010/03/mourvedre-monday-8-castano-monastrell-2007-rosado/comment-page-1/#comment-517 Dominique ROUJOU DE BOUBEE Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:08:23 +0000 http://www.vinegeek.com/?p=2342#comment-517 Hi Jim, I love your idea to declare 2010 the year of the Mourvèdre. It’s true that Mourvèdre is one the less known of the finest grape in the world. And not only in USA but also in Europe or in Asia. I’m a lucky consultant in viticulture and enology working in Spain (I already did a comment on your blog concerning the wines of Ribeira Sacra), but I grew in the South of France and I know quite well the wines from Bandol. The philosophy there (for the majority) is quite special. They don’t search to be fashion with new oak, neither big extractions. Their goal is to produce a wine with Mourvèdre with good capacity of aging. Because the Mourvèdre is not a sexy grape like Syrah for example which can give huge sensation in its youth. The personality of Mourvèdre come with the aging, after 4-5 years (depending of the vintage), and it can give extraordinary wines after 10-20 years. For me, the best ones are domaine de Tempier (they have also 3 very special wines made each one from a special plot: La tourtine, Cabassaou y la Migoua), château de Pibarnon, château Vannières, domaine le Galantin, domaine Lafran-Veyrolles, château Pradeaux, … You have to know that this grape comes from the south of Spain, the Levante area, it mean the triangle formed by Alicante, Jumilla y Valencia. It’s the majority grape of the Denomination of Origen (like AOC in France) Yecla, Jumilla, Alicante and sometimes of DO Bullas or Valencia. I am working with a winery in Alicante, BODEGAS SIERRA SALINAS (http://www.sierrasalinas.com) owned by the Castaño family (http://www.bodegascastano.com) where we have a lot of old vines of Mourvèdre in a lovely valley of organically poor limestone soils, at 700 m of altitude. We make 4 wines: Mo Salinas, an easy wine with 85% of Monastrell (the spanish word for Mourvèdre) and 4 months of aging in french oak barrels, Puerto Salinas, a more serious wine with 65-80% of Monastrell, 10-20% of Cabernet-Sauvignon and 10-20% of Alicante Bouschet (garnacha tintorera in Spain), aging of 12 months in french oak barrels (30-40% of new oak), Mira Salinas, where we search the finest and fresher expression of Monastrell, thinking in a long time aging in bottle, and we have Salinas 1237 (the mountain – sierra in spain – culminates at 1237 m of altitude, from there the name of the wine) which is a potent mediterranean wine with a majority of Alicante Bouschet and a complement of Cabernet-Sauvignon and Monastrell. These wines are distributed in USA by Eric Solomon, European Cellars http://europeancellars.com/. You should taste also the red wines of Yecla from the Castaño family, for me the best produced in this area. Since the "simple" Castaño Monastrell, to the well known Hecula, the more ambitious Castaño colección or the more confidential Casa Cisca. Personally, I love the Castaño colección, a very attractive wine with a soft price. It's normal that the rosado 2007 was a "little bit oxidized" like you mentioned. The harvest actually in the market is the 2009 and those wines doesn't have the ambition to age more than 1 year. With the 2009 vintage, we did in Sierra Salinas a special cuvee of a rose wine (just 11.000 bottles), named Mo rosé, from Mourvèdre, Alicante Bouschet and Cabernet-Sauvignon, but I don't know if it will be commercialized in USA. In USA, you can also find nice examples with Tablas Creek, but also Jade Mountain, Old Telegram, Cline Cellars ancient vines mourvèdre (you tasted few times ago "small berry mourvèdre"), Garretson mourvèdre \la garotsa\ paso robles, Ridge mataro (an other name of the mourvèdre) pato vineyard ATP 2002 or 2003, Alban vineyard forsythe, all from California, McRea mourvèdre red mountain in washington state. In Australia, you can find also a few producers than use Mourvèdre like Torbreck in the Pict or Hewitson old garden mourvèdre or baby bush Mourvèdre. Sorry to be so long, but it’s true that Mourvèdre-Monastrell-Mataro is a great unknown fine grape and each time I heard someone talking about it, I feel like to join the discussion. Enjoy those great wines of Mourvèdre and I hope your initiative will make the Mourvèdre more popular. Dominique ROUJOU DE BOUBEE Twitter droujoudb Hi Jim,
I love your idea to declare 2010 the year of the Mourvèdre. It’s true that Mourvèdre is one the less known of the finest grape in the world. And not only in USA but also in Europe or in Asia.
I’m a lucky consultant in viticulture and enology working in Spain (I already did a comment on your blog concerning the wines of Ribeira Sacra), but I grew in the South of France and I know quite well the wines from Bandol. The philosophy there (for the majority) is quite special. They don’t search to be fashion with new oak, neither big extractions. Their goal is to produce a wine with Mourvèdre with good capacity of aging. Because the Mourvèdre is not a sexy grape like Syrah for example which can give huge sensation in its youth. The personality of Mourvèdre come with the aging, after 4-5 years (depending of the vintage), and it can give extraordinary wines after 10-20 years.
For me, the best ones are domaine de Tempier (they have also 3 very special wines made each one from a special plot: La tourtine, Cabassaou y la Migoua), château de Pibarnon, château Vannières, domaine le Galantin, domaine Lafran-Veyrolles, château Pradeaux, …
You have to know that this grape comes from the south of Spain, the Levante area, it mean the triangle formed by Alicante, Jumilla y Valencia. It’s the majority grape of the Denomination of Origen (like AOC in France) Yecla, Jumilla, Alicante and sometimes of DO Bullas or Valencia.
I am working with a winery in Alicante, BODEGAS SIERRA SALINAS (http://www.sierrasalinas.com) owned by the Castaño family (http://www.bodegascastano.com) where we have a lot of old vines of Mourvèdre in a lovely valley of organically poor limestone soils, at 700 m of altitude. We make 4 wines: Mo Salinas, an easy wine with 85% of Monastrell (the spanish word for Mourvèdre) and 4 months of aging in french oak barrels, Puerto Salinas, a more serious wine with 65-80% of Monastrell, 10-20% of Cabernet-Sauvignon and 10-20% of Alicante Bouschet (garnacha tintorera in Spain), aging of 12 months in french oak barrels (30-40% of new oak), Mira Salinas, where we search the finest and fresher expression of Monastrell, thinking in a long time aging in bottle, and we have Salinas 1237 (the mountain – sierra in spain – culminates at 1237 m of altitude, from there the name of the wine) which is a potent mediterranean wine with a majority of Alicante Bouschet and a complement of Cabernet-Sauvignon and Monastrell.
These wines are distributed in USA by Eric Solomon, European Cellars http://europeancellars.com/.
You should taste also the red wines of Yecla from the Castaño family, for me the best produced in this area. Since the “simple” Castaño Monastrell, to the well known Hecula, the more ambitious Castaño colección or the more confidential Casa Cisca. Personally, I love the Castaño colección, a very attractive wine with a soft price.
It’s normal that the rosado 2007 was a “little bit oxidized” like you mentioned. The harvest actually in the market is the 2009 and those wines doesn’t have the ambition to age more than 1 year.
With the 2009 vintage, we did in Sierra Salinas a special cuvee of a rose wine (just 11.000 bottles), named Mo rosé, from Mourvèdre, Alicante Bouschet and Cabernet-Sauvignon, but I don’t know if it will be commercialized in USA.
In USA, you can also find nice examples with Tablas Creek, but also Jade Mountain, Old Telegram, Cline Cellars ancient vines mourvèdre (you tasted few times ago “small berry mourvèdre”), Garretson mourvèdre \la garotsa\ paso robles, Ridge mataro (an other name of the mourvèdre) pato vineyard ATP 2002 or 2003, Alban vineyard forsythe, all from California, McRea mourvèdre red mountain in washington state.
In Australia, you can find also a few producers than use Mourvèdre like Torbreck in the Pict or Hewitson old garden mourvèdre or baby bush Mourvèdre.
Sorry to be so long, but it’s true that Mourvèdre-Monastrell-Mataro is a great unknown fine grape and each time I heard someone talking about it, I feel like to join the discussion.
Enjoy those great wines of Mourvèdre and I hope your initiative will make the Mourvèdre more popular.

Dominique ROUJOU DE BOUBEE
Twitter droujoudb

]]> Comment on Mourvedre Monday #8: Castaño Monastrell 2007 Rosado by Benito http://www.vinegeek.com/2010/03/mourvedre-monday-8-castano-monastrell-2007-rosado/comment-page-1/#comment-516 Benito Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:19:00 +0000 http://www.vinegeek.com/?p=2342#comment-516 Man, that's disappointing, and there's a bunch of great Spanish pinks out there. The regular red Castaño is great, though! Also, despite having been born in 1976 and a huge Star Wars fan my entire childhood, I was an adult before I learned that Stormtroopers were people, not robots. I'll agree to a two-month suspension of my geek credentials. Man, that’s disappointing, and there’s a bunch of great Spanish pinks out there. The regular red Castaño is great, though!

Also, despite having been born in 1976 and a huge Star Wars fan my entire childhood, I was an adult before I learned that Stormtroopers were people, not robots. I’ll agree to a two-month suspension of my geek credentials.

]]> Comment on Story Winery Picnic Hill Zinfandel 2006 by Jim/VINEgeek http://www.vinegeek.com/2010/01/story-winery-picnic-hill-zinfandel-2006/comment-page-1/#comment-513 Jim/VINEgeek Sun, 28 Feb 2010 06:35:12 +0000 http://www.vinegeek.com/?p=1987#comment-513 Nelda - Sorry to hear about your husband. Thank you for sharing your experience with Story and this wine. I can see it being the kind of wine you want to try each vintage. An overflowing wine cellar is a good thing, right?! Nelda – Sorry to hear about your husband. Thank you for sharing your experience with Story and this wine. I can see it being the kind of wine you want to try each vintage. An overflowing wine cellar is a good thing, right?!

]]> Comment on Story Winery Picnic Hill Zinfandel 2006 by NELDA MCDERMOTT http://www.vinegeek.com/2010/01/story-winery-picnic-hill-zinfandel-2006/comment-page-1/#comment-512 NELDA MCDERMOTT Sun, 28 Feb 2010 06:17:37 +0000 http://www.vinegeek.com/?p=1987#comment-512 My husband, who just died, and I have been barrel tasting zins at Story for many years, and always buy two cases after tasting. One is always Picnic Hill. I will be getting the two cases next weekend, and they always give an extra bottle per case. My daughter will be going with me to use the other ticket. I will probably split the cases with her, because our wine cellar is full and overflowing. Thanks for the opportunity to rave about Story and especially our favorite variety!! My husband, who just died, and I have been barrel tasting zins at Story for many years, and always buy two cases after tasting. One is always Picnic Hill. I will be getting the two cases next weekend, and they always give an extra bottle per case. My daughter will be going with me to use the other ticket. I will probably split the cases with her, because our wine cellar is full and overflowing. Thanks for the opportunity to rave about Story and especially our favorite variety!!

]]> Comment on Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc 2008 Marlborough by Jim/VINEgeek http://www.vinegeek.com/2009/12/kim-crawford-sauvignon-blanc-2008-marlborough/comment-page-1/#comment-509 Jim/VINEgeek Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:00:07 +0000 http://www.vinegeek.com/?p=1594#comment-509 Brew - Congrats on the wedding. I love Maui. I think this is a very solid wine, though I'm sure some guests who've never had a NZ SB could be taken aback. It's an aggressive style for those used to Cali Chards or similar. Brew – Congrats on the wedding. I love Maui. I think this is a very solid wine, though I’m sure some guests who’ve never had a NZ SB could be taken aback. It’s an aggressive style for those used to Cali Chards or similar.

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