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About Me

Hi, I'm Jim. I'm not a wine professional or critic. But I am a geek who loves wine. For me, half the fun of wine is learning about the grapes, the vineyards, the winemaking, the history behind the bottle. I'm drawn to old vines, indigenous grapes, single vineyard bottlings, field blends and anything else that makes a wine distinctive. On this blog I share my thoughts and tasting notes on the wines I drink and what I learn about them along the way.

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If you want to connect with me beyond leaving comments, email me at jim [at] vinegeek [dot] com

Mourvedre Monday #8: Castaño Monastrell 2007 Rosado

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 [...]

Mourvèdre Monday #7: Gros’Noré 2006 Bandol

Through six weeks of the Mourvèdre Monday series, one would be pardoned for wondering why I didn’t name it Monastrell Monday, as four of the first six wines were from Spain, where Monastrell is the name for this grape. Finally, in week 7, we make it to Bandol. This is the most important region for [...]

Mourvèdre Monday #6: Wrongo Dongo 2008

I intended to avoid Spain for this week’s Mourvèdre Monday. Three of the first 5 installments have been Spanish Monastrells and I wanted more variety. I had my sights set on opening either a Bandol or an Aussie bottle in my cellar. But I’ve been sick since last Monday and I’m just getting back to [...]

Chateau Raspail 2007 Gigondas

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 [...]

Mourvèdre Monday #5: Edward Sellers Cognito 2006

It’s back to California for today’s Mourvèdre Monday post, specifically Paso Robles. Though I first fell in love with Mourvèdre via the old vines examples from Contra Costa County, Paso Robles is a hotbed of Rhône grape-growing in California. Edward Sellers is a Rhône-style specialist in Paso, with a focus on blends vs. varietal bottlings (though [...]

Mourvèdre Monday #4: Juan Gil 2007

This is the fourth installment of Mourvèdre Monday, VINEgeek’s yearlong deep-dive into the Mourvèdre/Monastrell/Mataro grape. Check out the other posts in the series here.

After I announced that 2010 would be The Year of Mourvedre here at VINEgeek Enterprises, I got lots of great recommendations from my fellow winos. This bottle was suggested by @Sonadora of Wannabe [...]

Mourvedre Monday #3: Casa Castillo 2007

I’m still sort of tip-toeing into this Mourvèdre Monday series. I’m saving the big guns for later in the year and I’m sticking with a bargain Spanish bottle again this week. This one got 90 points from Parker and Tanzer, so let’s check it out.
Producer: Casa Castillo
Grapes: 100% Monastrell (Mourvèdre)
Appellation: Jumilla (DO, Spain)
Vineyards: From dry-farmed estate [...]

Mourvèdre Monday #1: Barahonda Monastrell 2006

Just after the New Year, I decided to make 2010 ‘The Year of Mourvèdre‘ for VINEgeek and pledged to institute Mourvèdre Mondays. For this, the first installment, I didn’t want to begin with a top-dog wine (Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape, for example), mostly because I didn’t want the rest of the year to seem like a letdown. [...]

This is why Côtes du Rhône rocks!

This one is exciting! It was a quick grab from the Costco shelf. I’d never heard of it, but was in the mood for some Rhone action. Little did I know that lurking behind this boring label would be one of the tastiest little wines I’ve had in months.
Galévan ‘Paroles de femme’ 2007 Côtes du [...]

Breast Cancer Awareness Month Wine Recommendation

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month is winding down and pink has been everywhere. Even the NFL got in on it in a big way. So maybe that’s why I noticed this wine on an end-cap display at my local supermarket. It’s from Cline Cellars (a winery that regular readers will know I am a fan [...]