Tag Archives: Grenache

Price: 16-20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Chateau Raspail 2007 Gigondas

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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 you, dear readers, get the dregs.

Producer: Chateau Raspail

Grapes: The blend is not noted on the bottle or the website. But according to chateauneuf.dk (a very comprehensive Danish website on Rhône wines) it is 60% Grenache, 30% Syrah and 10% Mourvèdre. Let’s consider that as approximate.

Appellation: Gigondas (AOC, France).  Gigondas is in the southern Rhône valley region, and was originally entitled to just the Côtes du Rhône name, but in 1966 was upgraded to Côtes du Rhône-Villages, then in 1971 to it’s own AOC.

Vineyards: I can’t really make much from what’s on the chateau’s website about the vineyards. Some hillside vineyard land and some in the plain.

Winemaking: Chateauneuf.dk says it’s aged in tanks.

Alcohol: 15%

Price: I paid around $15-16 at Costco

My tasting notes: Deep, eggplant-purple color. It starts off a bit closed (to be fair, I did pop-n-pour), but with time it opens nicely to display some bright red fruit, dusty floral notes and a hint of green algae (reminding me of my dad’s tropical fish aquarium). In the mouth, it balances high-toned red fruit with a meaty/earthy character and finishes with grippy tannins and some heat (note the 15% abv).

Overall impression: Nice stuff. Somehow I’m feeling a little disappointed though. I was expecting more from the step up to Gigondas. But a good bottle, nonetheless. B-

Free association:

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/60852569@N00/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

More info:

Other reviews at  CellarTracker.

Here’s the chateau’s website if you want to try to read it. The black text on dark maroon background was not a great choice, mesdames et messieurs.

Price: Over 20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Mourvèdre Monday #5: Edward Sellers Cognito 2006

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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 not exclusively). This bottle, which they call Cognito, is a CdP-style blend of Mourvèdre, Syrah and Grenache with some Zin added for a California flair. Let’s check it out.

Producer: Edward Sellers

Grapes: 45% Mourvèdre, 20% Syrah, 20% Zinfandel, 15% Grenache

Appellation: Paso Robles (AVA, California)

Vineyards: no info

Vintage: 2006

Winemaking: 100% neutral French oak.

Alcohol: 14.9%

Price: I paid $29 at Spec’s in Austin.

My tasting notes: The nose is throws a punch of raspberry fruitiness and cherry cola, with a bit of creamy vanilla and a touch of mocha. On the palate, it’s fat and fruity, mostly red fruit again. A hint of minerality if you’re really searching for it, and a peppery note at the finish. Despite Mourvèdre being the largest share of the blend, I don’t get much of what I really enjoy from Mourvèdre-based wines: structure, meatiness, earthy/savory qualities.

Overall impression: This is another one where I was not digging the first glass, but it evened itself out by the second glass into something closer to my liking. In the end, though, it’s not something I’d buy again, not at nearly $30. C+

Free association:

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/warmnfuzzy/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

More info:

576 cases produced.

Price: 10 bucks or less, Tasting Notes

This is why Côtes du Rhône rocks!

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galevan_CotesDuRhone_2007_snapshotThis 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 Rhône

Producer: Domaine Galévan

Grapes: 70% Grenache, 20% Mourvèdre and 10% Cinsault

Appellation: Côtes du Rhône (AOC, France)

Vineyard: “stony soil” according to the label

Winemaking: No info on the winery’s very basic website. The winemaker is Coralie Goumarre.

Alcohol: 14.5%

Price: Around $10-12 at Costco in Austin UPDATE: I went back and it’s only $7.99!

My tasting notes: Deep, dark color. The nose is full of iron and graphite and dark fruit and figs and coffee – it makes me want to use the word “redolent” and I’m not the kind of guy who uses the word redolent. With coaxing, I also get this really nice, bright, beautiful raspberry note. In the mouth, there is dark fruit, but the primary flavors are savory, herbal, earthy. There is a spicy, black pepper note on the back-end as well. It finishes a touch hot, but the rest is so nice, I barely notice. I am really digging this wine. It’s layered but light on its feet. It’s pushing all my buttons.

Overall impression: A great wine for the price. This is why I love trying Côtes du Rhône wines. Good luck trying to find something this interesting from California at this price. Buy it. Buy it. Buy it. (If you’re in Austin, please wait until I’ve had a chance to get back to Costco) A-

I know that I’ve never really explained my rating system. In simplest terms, it’s a rating of my enjoyment of a wine not an attempt at an objective assessment of “quality” vis-a-vis the greatest wines on the planet. I’ll try to post a fuller explanation of the rating system soon, but suffice it to say… I really like this wine.

Free association: This wine makes me want to do the Balki Bartokomous ‘Dance of Joy’.

More info:

More tasting notes at CellarTracker.

Serge the Concierge posted about Coralie and Domaine Galevan a few months ago.

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Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Breast Cancer Awareness Month Wine Recommendation

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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 of) and it has a pink ribbon on the label. Cline is a supporter of the Breast Cancer Network of Strength Ride to Empower, and a portion of the proceeds from sales of this wine goes to this cause.

Cline07Cashmere_FLabelCline 2007 Cashmere

Producer: Cline Cellars

Grapes: 39% Grenache, 38% Syrah, 23% Mourvèdre

Appellation: California

Vineyards: Most of the Grenache comes from the Massoni Vineyard in Oakley. The rest of the Grenache and all of the Mourvèdre comes from the Big Break vineyard (also in Oakley). Big Break is one of Cline’s ancient vine vineyard jewels, with 80-120 year old gnarly, head-pruned vines in sandy (phylloxera-resistant) soil. The Syrah comes from Paso Robles.

Winemaking: Stainless steel fermentation. 9 months in dark-toast French oak (25% new).

Alcohol: 14.5%

Price: $15-16 retail

My tasting notes: A pretty violet-red color. The aroma is all sweet, creamy oakyness. On the palate, I’m immediately struck by the smoothness of this wine – Cashmere, indeed. It has luscious plummy, red berry, and blackberry flavors, with vanillin oak and spice accents. A touch of mint on the finish, which comes from the influence of a eucalyptus grove adjacent to the Big Break vineyard. Tasty stuff.

Overall impression: If you really don’t like oak-influenced wines, this probably isn’t for you. But it’s just plain delicious. I think this will be the wine I recommend the next time I get asked by a non-wine nerd for a good bottle. It’s very easy to drink, has terrific mouthfeel and I don’t see anyone not liking it (except the oak-haters). B+

Free association: This probably isn’t fair to Cline and their very nice wine, but I couldn’t resist once I saw this. The dresses below are from a fashion show put on by Canada’s top-selling brand of bathroom tissue: Cashmere. The dresses are “crafted entirely in 100 per cent pure, soft and luxurious sheets of Cashmere Bathroom Tissue.” The fashion show is part of a campaign to raise awareness and funds for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

CashmereTPdressPR

More info:

The winery’s tech sheet.

For more info and photos from the fashion show, click here.

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Cannonau – WBW #62: A Grape By Any Other Name

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Argiolos Costera-Bottle Shot

The theme of this month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday #62 (hosted by Dale Cruse at Drinks Are On Me) is “A Grape By Any Other Name”. The idea is to taste a wine labeled with a lesser known name of an otherwise common grape. Now this is the sort of thing that I’d normally stew over at length. However, on a recent trip to Costco, I happened upon a bottle that I thought was a great fit: a 100% Cannonau from Sardinia.

Argiolas Costera 2006 Isola dei Nuraghi

Producer: Argiolas

Grapes: 100% Cannonau – the name for Grenache in Sardinia

Appellation: Isola Dei Nuraghi IGT (Sardinia, Italy)

Vineyards: The Costera vineyard, a 61-acre vineyard with clay and limestone soils and southeasterly exposure. It was planted in 1989.

Winemaking: Tank fermented, then spent 6-8 months in French barriques.

Alcohol: 13.9%

Price: $14 at Costco

My tasting notes: Dark, yet translucent. A gemlike garnet in color. On the nose, this wine is pungent with tire shop smells. If there’s fruit there it is well-hidden. In the mouth, there is a lot of iron and perhaps a little tarriness, but some good raspberry fruit comes through as well. It finishes with nice grippy tannins. After being open a few hours, the tire aroma recedes and the fruit shows up on the nose. The palate integrates a bit more and starts to lean toward wild berries and meaty flavors, while retaining a stony minerality. On day two it’s drinking even better – the fruit is really shining now and it’s plush while retaining some backbone.

Overall assessment: I enjoyed drinking it over a couple days, and at $14 I don’t think it’s a bad value, but I do think there is a lot of competition at that price as well – stuff I like even more. However, I like finding nice wines like this from regions I rarely think about. B-

Reflecting on the theme of this WBW, I think this Cannonau has some similarities and some differences from the Grenache wines I’ve been drinking recently. First, it does convey the minerality that I find in Garnacha from Spain (e.g., Montsant) or Grenache from the Southern Rhone (e.g., Vacqueyras, Vinsobres). On the other hand, this one is much more tightly wound and takes lots of time (day 2) before the delicious fruit shows up. Of course, much of the French and Spanish Grenache/Garnacha is blended, often with Syrah, while this is 100% varietal. It was definitely an interesting bottle and I’m glad Dale’s WBW theme led me to it.

Free association:

TireTreadMacro

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

More info:

Imported by Winebow/Leonardo LoCascio. Lots of geekster details on the wine at their website.

CellarTracker tasting notes (avg. 88 points).

Other blogger reviews: Viva la Wino, Canadian Wine Guy, The Gastronome’s Cellar and Wine Belly.

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Boots Grenache 2005 Barossa

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Boots05Grenache_snapshot

Producer: Trevor Jones (Boots label)

Grapes: Grenache

Appellation: Barossa (Australia)

Vineyards: Old bush vines

Winemaking: This wine sees some time in French oak, but just how long isn’t clear from the label or website.

Alcohol: 14.5%

Price: $12-13

My tasting notes: Very light color. Bright nose of pine forest, cherries (cherry cough syrup, really) and Wint-O-Green LifeSavers. Some oak coming through as well. On the palate, this wine is silky and pleasant with cherry, herbs and a maple syrup quality. But it lacks backbone. There’s a bit of tannic grip at the end and a dry finish, but overall it feels unstructured.

Overall assessment: Not what I expected from a Barossa wine; it’s certainly not BIG and jammy. This wine walks the fine line between interesting and odd. I think I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt and calling it interesting. C+

Free association:

odd_shaped_glasses

More info:

This wine scored an 89 in The Wine Advocate (Jay Miller).

A few tasting notes at CellarTracker.

The Grateful Palate is the importer. Here’s their page on this wine (though it appears to not be updated to the 05).

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Perrin & Fils Vinsobres “Les Cornuds” 2006

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PerrinVinsobres_NV_bottleshotPerrin & Fils is a producer that always catches my eye. I’ve had a number of very good bottles from them and no bad ones. So when I saw this bottle at Costco from an appellation I’m not familiar with and a couple of nice scores (91 WS and 90 RP), I couldn’t resist.

Producer: Perrin & Fils

Grapes: Back label says 65% Syrah, 35% Grenache – but I read in two places that the AC rules for this appellation require a minimum of 50% Grenache. So I’m assuming they got it backward on the label and it’s 65% Grenache.

Appellation: Vinsobres (AOC, France) (map). Formerly classified as Côtes du Rhône Villages (1957), then Côtes du Rhône Villages Vinsobres (1967), this appellation was granted its own AOC (just Vinsobres) in 2005.

Vineyards: From vineyards at Domaine de la Bicarelle and the Julian estate. They describe the soils as “Stony and sandy marl on the slopes, with quartenary stony alluviums on the terraces.”

Winemaking/aging: Label says 35% is aged in French oak, but no indication for how long or whether the barrels are new or not.

Alcohol: 14%

Price: $12-15

My tasting notes: Dusty red fruit, pencil shavings and dried herbs on the nose. Feels weighty in the mouth, with flavors of dried cherries, plums, figs and just a hint of black olive. Persistent minerality on the finish. (Drinks well on day two – a little fruitier and fleshier.)

Overall assessment: A nice wine. Good balance of restrained fruit and minerality/earth, especially after a few hours open and the next day. A good way to explore lesser-known Rhone appellations. B-

Free association: In the my last post, I used Iron Man to convey the iron notes in the wine. I have comics on the brain, so I’m using The Thing to convey the earthy minerality of this wine.

TheThing_Cover

More info:

Wondering how to pronounce the name of this wine?

Other blogger reviews: Gang of Pour,  Viva la Wino and Passport Foodie

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Drink Pink, Take 2: Routas Rouviere 2007

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After recently enjoying a rosé, the Bonny Doon Vin Gris de  Cigare 2007, and asking myself why I don’t drink pink more often, I picked up another — this time from France.

routas2007roseProducer: Chateau Routas

Grapes: 40% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 30% Cinsault

Appellation: Coteaux Varois en Provence (AOC, France).

Vinification/Aging: [from the producer’s website] The grapes are cooled and kept on their skins for 12 to 24 hours immediately following harvest, then gently pressed. All the Syrah and half of the Grenache go straight to neutral oak barrels after being pressed where they go through their primary and malolactic fermentation. The remaining Grenache and Cinsault are fermented in stainless steel tanks and blocked from malolactic fermentation. The two different lots are aged separately for five months and blended prior bottling.

Alcohol: 13%

Price: I paid $11 at Spec’s in Austin.

My tasting notes:  Very nice salmon/apricot color.  On the nose, I’m struck first by soapy aromas, like a heavily-scented hand soap — Wild SugarBerry Blossom, or something like that. There’s a bit of crayon box, too. And slightly oxidized aroma like sherry. Maybe I have an off bottle. Mrs. VINEgeek adds that there is a “creek water” element to it. In the mouth, it comes across somewhat sugary on the initial attack, like sugar-coated strawberries and raspberries, followed by bit of that oxidation I smelled (though not so much as to make it unpalatable). It has good acid and finishes dry.

Overall assessment/score: I hesitate to give this a score since there’s a chance I got an off bottle. Even without the possible oxidation, I think it was a bit out of balance. For my palate, this is not nearly as nice as the Vin Gris de Cigare. Here are some other people’s thoughts.  Also, Wine Spectator gave it an 87.

Free association:

who_owns_bath_and_body_works-741300

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare 2007 California

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VinGrisCigare07_bottle_600pxh_300dpiMaybe because I had just posted about the Bonny Doon Mourvedre, I picked up this bottle on a recent replenish-the-stock-of-everyday-wine trip to the wine shop. I don’t drink much of the pink stuff, generally. It has a top-of-mind awareness problem with me. I just don’t think about it very often. When I go to the wine shop or grab a few bottles at the grocery store, I tend to think of value reds from Spain or Portugal or the Rhone, Argentine Malbec, Sonoma Zins. Or whites like New Zealand SBs, Albarino, Vinho Verde, various Alsace whites. Rosé as a category just doesn’t cross my mind.

I opened this one for one of our “grazing dinners” as my wife like to call them: prosciutto and melon, caprese salad, olives, some cheese, etc. Let’s see how it did.

Producer: Bonny Doon Vineyards

Grapes: 47% Grenache, 27% Cinsault, 14% Syrah, 7% Grenache Blanc, 5% Roussanne

Appellation: California (though it’s hard to tell from the label — it just says “Pink Wine of the Earth”)

Vineyards: unknown

Aging: unknown

Alcohol: 13.5%

Price: I don’t remember exactly what I paid, but it’s in the $12-14 range.

My tasting notes: Beautiful color. Strawberries and a distinct balloon aroma on the nose. On the palate, it has nice fruit leaning toward strawberry and cherry and possibly peach. Hints of earth and herbs. There is a really great texture to this wine; good weight. Am I imagining a little bit of an oily quality? Finishes dry and delicious.

Assessment/grade: I really like this. Beautiful color, nice aromatics, great mouthfeel and flavor. What’s not to like? Why don’t I drink this more often? B

Free association:

credit: D Sharon Pruitt (flickr account: Pink Sherbet Photography)
credit: D Sharon Pruitt (flickr account: Pink Sherbet Photography)

More details on Bonny Doon’s sell sheet for this wine here.

Price: 10 bucks or less, Tasting Notes

Evodia 2007 Old Vines Garnacha

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Old vines…ten bucks…Eric Solomon…you don’t have to twist my arm.  Let’s get into it.Label_Evodia2007

Producer: Altavinum

Grapes: 100% Garnacha

Appellation: Calatayud (D.O.); Northeastern Spain

Vineyards: High altitude vineyards (2400-3000 feet) in the mountainous village of Atea.  Pure slate soils. Old vines “planted up to 100 years ago.”

Aging: tank, no oak

Alcohol: 14.5%

Importer: Eric Solomon

Price: I paid $9.98 at Spec’s in Austin

My Tasting Notes: Deep plummy purple with a bit of fuchsia at the edges that seems common with Grenache.  Unusual nose.  Not a ton of fruit. I mostly pick up a strong maple syrup/antifreeze note.  A little mint and stone.  With more time in the glass I start to pick up raspberry.  In the mouth it is medium-bodied and lively with mashed berry flavors. Maybe a little golden raisin.  Very pure and clean.  Very little tannins, but good minerality and acid provide structure.  Nice, interesting little bottle for ten bucks.  The minerality in this is what makes it a winner for me at this price point.

Grade: B

Free association:

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Atea Vineyards
Atea Vineyards