VINEgeek

I’ll admit to having a geekcrush on Randall Grahm, president-for-life of Bonny Doon Vineyard. So take my opinion on his wines with a grain of salt. You can geekcrush on him, too, here and here and here and here and here. FYI: “Le Pousseur” translates to “the pusher”. ____________________________ Producer: Bonny Doon Vineyard Grapes: 100% [...]

Carignane is about as unsexy as grapes get. Firstly, it’s a pretty ugly-sounding word. And have you ever heard anybody say, “My favorite wine is Carignane”? I didn’t think so. When it is used, it’s most often in blend, so today’s varietal Carignane from Cline is suitably oddball. And being “old vines” adds a little extra [...]

Mourvèdre Monday finally makes it to Texas. Becker is a big name in the Texas wine scene. I’ve tried quite a few of their wines over the years with mixed results. I had high hopes for their “Prairie Rotie” — a Southern Rhône blend of Mourvèdre, Grenache, Syrah and Carignan (though the name is a [...]

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 [...]

This wine was shared with me by Mike Castleman, whom I met via Twitter. He heard about my Mourvèdre Monday series and recommended this wine to me. When we realized we were both in Austin, we planned to meet up and taste it together. Thanks, Mike!  I’ll have to return the favor soon. (Mike makes [...]

This is the tenth installment of Mourvèdre Monday. Click here for the other posts in the series. We return to Spain for this week’s Mourvèdre Monday post. And not only back to Spain, but back to the producer of Week 1′s wine: the Barahonda 06 Monastrell. This is another wine in their lineup – this one [...]

Producer: Michael~David Winery Grapes: 84% Syrah and 16% Petite Sirah Appellation: Lodi (AVA, California) Vineyards: no info Vintage: 2007 Winemaking: The wine spent 20 months in French oak (% new unknown) Alcohol: 15% Price: $17 at the online store My tasting notes: The wine starts off with sweet blueberry and blackberry cobbler aromas along with [...]

This is the second appearance of the Mencía grape here in the Oddball series. The first was the terrific Viña Caneiro 2007 Ribeira Sacra. But this one is from Bierzo, another northwestern region of Spain. La Mano Mencía Roble 2007 Bierzo Producer: Vinos de Arganza Grapes: 100% Mencía Appellation: Bierzo (DO, Spain) Vineyards: No info on the [...]

A recent post over at Benito’s Wine Reviews got me thinking about rosé. I need a reminder every once in a while. Almost every time I drink one, I think, “Why don’t I drink this more often?” Then I go back to my reds and whites. So, as I was contemplating what to pull from [...]

My apologies in advance for the sketchy details on this bottle. There’s not much info on it to be found online. I’ve had a draft of this post sitting around for a while and I didn’t think I’d bother posting it, but I’ve been sick for a while and haven’t been drinking any wine so [...]