Jason’s Wine Blog

Price: $9.99 @ K&L Wines imported by European Cellars

What They Said:

Per K&L Wines “89 points from the Wine Advocate! They say, “The 2006 Burgans Albarino, a custom cuvee chosen by importer Eric Solomon, is a candidate for Best Buy in the Albarino category. Medium gold-colored, the wine has excellent honey, mineral, orange marmalade and peach aromas and flavors in a just off-dry format. Drink it over the next 12-18 months with grilled salmon, tuna, and roast chicken. 6/18/2007″ ”

What I Think:

A friend of mine had just returned from fishing in San Diego and came home with a cooler full of fresh albacore. He invited us over to dinner and I certainly didn’t take me long to agree. As we were headed out the door I shuffled through the whites and pulled this one out. When I saw this one in the K&L email it was a no-brainer. It was albarino which I have much enjoyed in the past and it was imported by Eric Solomon how has a perfect track record with the many bottles of his Masia M that I have enjoyed.

To be honest, I don’t remember much about this wine because the food was so incredible. I do remember the pairing being great. From what I can recall this wine was on the dryer side with a mineral backbone and flavors of fruit rinds (orange or lemon) with a hint of hay. Looks like K&L has some more at this point so perhaps I will give it another go and pay more attention. That said for the time being will give it a pricey designation but this poor bottle was just a victim of circumstance.

Rating: Pricey

Price: $9.99 @ Trader Joe’s imported by Santini Fine Wines

What They Said:

I’ve spent more time searching for a write-up on this than anything else on the site…With that time I turned up nothing. Not that it matters, even if I love this wine none of us will ever find it again.

What I Think:

As mentioned above this one took some investigating to track down. There were lots of random markings on the bottle. It was imported by Santini but they had no information available this far back. Eventually I was able to track down, or at least I think, that it was bottled by Casa Vinicola Bosco Malera. This is only the second bottle I have had from Santini but when pulling the cork and seeing their name upon I recalled the other had the same. I wonder to what level their involvement goes. It appears as if they are custom making these wines for export.

Moving on, this bottle had been in my basement for quite some time. It may even have been the eldest member of the closet. On this Sunday I started making my Bonarda based pasta sauce at about three in the afternoon. Expecting good things I wanted to open a nice bottle of Italian wine. I have two that are in the $50 plus category around and outside of those two this was the best available. My frustration with my ability to truly enjoy Italian wines has been covered often here, given that the pickings were thin. I bought this long ago @ TJ’s which has carried it throughout the vintages (think they have the ’03 now). Given that the ’97 vintage from Piedmont was near perfect my hopes were running high!

Now to the tasting, after the first swirl and sip I found myself thinking could this be the one? Pulling the cork out I found it wet about half the way up, thought that may be of note. Hey it’s not often I open bottles of wine that are ten years old. On pouring into the decanter it may a good impression. Nice nose, interesting ruby/brown color. In the glass the nose seemed complex. It smells like, what I believe, an Italian red wine should. There are plum and cherries commingling but brooding with a hint of mint and loads of spices toward the end. On the palate the flavor profile reflects the aromas before a nice, complex, thick textured finish leaves tannins tingling in the mouth. As I was enjoying I began to wonder if my lackluster history with Italian wine make this seem better than it is. As it sat in the glass it seemed to be getting lighter in color (more brown) by the minute.

Either way, you are never quite sure what it is but the mystery is intriguing as it keeps you constantly guessing but you can never quite figure it out. This alone made it worth the experience. At $12 it is a little to expensive for a 12th bottle so we will upgrade to a rating of “Pricey” I have a bottle of the same wine from 2001. I’ll open that soon to see what a difference ten years in the bottle makes. If given the opportunity to buy the ’97 now I would do so again, as I don’t we will wait for the ’01 results before passing a verdict on these offerings.

Rating: Pricey

Price: $13.30 direct from the winery

What They Said:

Per the winery “There is a distinct reason that winemakers like making Chardonnay. It puts their craft, and consequently them, front and center stage. Unlike other white varieties like Sauvignon Blanc, which is herbal and grassy or Gewürztraminer, which is heady with floral aromas, ripe Chardonnay is more chameleon. That means the winemaker’s choices in the cellar become paramount. These decisions include whether to encourage a secondary malolactic fermentation that adds buttery tones, the length and temperature of the fermentation and perhaps above all the choice of oak cooperage including which cooper, which forest the wood should come from, how long the wood should dry, the toast level, whether to toast the head of the barrel, not to mention how long the wine should rest on the yeast, if it should be stirred and how much time it should spend in oak.

This Mendocino bottling is less buttery than the Première Reserve and the lovely apple-melon flavors and moderate price tag entitle Navarro’s winemaker Jim Klein, to take a bow. Gold Medal winner.”

What I Think:

Another bottle from Navarro, as many of you I am a big fan of theirs (full disclosure: I am a member of their wine club). They called this one “What’s the difference?” My history with their Chardonnay’s has been decent. Given that I don’t have an inclination to this style to begin with they haven’t been able to create one for me. Given that I use their basic Mendocino Chardonnay as an annual benchmark to make sure that my overall opinion towards these wines hasn’t evolved since our last encounter. That being said, they have an Anderson Valley Reserve label that I have been showing to the cellar for the last three or four years, maybe one of those could change my opinion.

Now, let’s get back to this bottle of wine. On the nose you think typical chardonnay; there is butter at the forefront followed by the aromas of the barrel with some fruit lingering way off in the distance. On the tongue, it dances a little before starting to show some apple flavors. The wine is rich and full bodied through the mid-palate before finishing slightly tart on the backbone. A nice wine to drink but given my general disdain for the butter and barrel that dominate these wines I won’t be signing up for more. Above you can see some of the many decisions that go into making these wines. I wonder how they could be made to suit my palate profile. Seems like me the first thing I would do is barrel them in stainless steel. I have had a few of these unwooded chardonnays that let the fruit do the talking and while I haven’t loved them I have enjoyed them better than most. Let the fruit do the talking! The second thing I may do is skip that secondary malolactic fermentation which introduces the buttery tones. Once I get a hint of these I think I almost mentally shut down on giving the wines a real chance, quickly chalking them up as typical. Lastly, I’d play with the degree of toasting. I am guessing that for me less would be more. No all I have to do is get someone to hire me as a winemaker and we could my theories to practice. Who’s got connections for me?

Rating: Pricey

Price: $10.99 @ Friend/Gift

What They Said:

Per quaffability “Is anybody doing bargain Pinot Noir better than Castle Rock Winery? Not that I know of. Trader Joe’s has been running their wines of late, and I have been impressed by every one I have tried. Too bad this one has crept up in price one dollar compared to the previous vintage.

It seems awfully early in the day to be bringing 2007 red wines to market, but that’s part of the philosophy behind these wines. They are light, fresh, and do not see a lot of oak aging.

The 2006 Willamette Valley is clone of the 2005. Not quite as light and transparent, the wine shows smoky, earthy, and sandalwood aromas, along with bright strawberry and raspberry fruit. The palate is simple, but it’s clean, without any green or other off flavors, leading to a nice but short finish. Like the 05, the texture as a bit of silk to it. To be clear, this isn’t great - it’s just a clean, nicely made wine. Regrettably, that’s the most you can hope for at this price point, and it’s more than many producers can provide.”

What I Think:

I had been eyeing this bottle at TJ’s for some time now so when our friends brought this one over on the 4th of July I was excited. We popped it open and drank it with some good old fashioned hamburgers. Given that we had guests my notes are extremely limited. The one thing I seem to remember most about this wine is strawberries. This wine is light and delicate, almost reminding me of a rose. Perhaps the burgers were a bit much for it. I certainly don’t feel that I spent enough time focusing on this wine to pass a verdict but given my initial impressions it has certainly lost some of the mystic that it once had. Next time I see it on the shelf at TJ’s it won’t hold my glance as long, but some day it may find its way to my house again. Typically I would rate this as a “12th Bottle” but at this price point I don’t find that relevant. Faced with labeling it as “Skip It” which seems unfair I decided to bend the rules and call this one “Pricey” though it doesn’t quite meet the arbitrary $12 price barrier.

Rating: Pricey

Price: $14.25 direct from the winery

What They Said:

Per the winery “Navarro’s Riesling style has evolved over the last thirty years thanks to the increasing availability of better clones in California. When we started growing Riesling in the 70’s there wasn’t much choice of what to plant. Historically many California clones of this variety had been selected for high yields rather than high wine quality. We planted our first clonal trials of Riesling in 1990 when the nurseries started to have a wider choice available and now Navarro’s fields are planted to some of the world’s most flavorful clones. 84% of this wine was produced from Navarro’s expanded plantings; there’s bright apple and stone-fruit flavors that are reminiscent of ripe German Rieslings from the Rheinpfalz. Because we are now starting with more flavorful grapes, we’ve found ourselves crafting drier versions of Riesling but a drier finish requires careful winemaking in order to avoid extracting astringency from the skins, seeds or stems. After destemming, the free-run juice was cool fermented in oak ovals where it rested on the lees for six months, contributing to a rich mouth feel and hints of charcuterie.

There is a tad of residual sugar but it’s just enough to balance Riesling’s naturally high acidity; the wine finishes deliciously tart and dry with no perceptible sweetness. The captivating floral bouquet has just a touch of Germanic petrol and the lush flavors hint at apple, tangerine and apricot. Try it with thinly sliced Westphalia ham on pumpernickel. Prost! Gold Medal winner.”

What I Think:

The winery called this one “Quest” in reference to their long journey towards developing the desired style for their bottling. I left the majority of what they said though it wasn’t directly related to this wine as I found it interesting.

This wine was very pale in color, on opening like the Pinot I had a few day backs, this one didn’t jump out of the bottle at you. It took the subtler approach and grows on you over time. What do you reckon that means, when the wine shows such a drastic improvement with just a bit of air? Should Navarro have kept these out of the bottle for a bit longer? Should I have kept it in the bottle a little longer? Or would neither have mattered and the wines just needed air… This always makes me wonder if I catch a wine at an “in-between” time. This is purely conjecture but I think when some wines are bottled they offer a drinking window before closing up to become to age a bit, again becoming drinkable at a later time. That wouldn’t seem to make sense here as it is such a young wine. It was bottled only 10 months ago. Back to the wine, one interesting thing was that it never had much of a nose at all. In fact I was trying so hard to pick something up I got my nose wet a few times. Initially the taste was hard to discern but there was certainly a tart, racy finish. It seemed a bit of lemon leading on to a mineral like finish. As it opened this went from the dominant force in the wine to a mere afterthought as the texture became more supple apples, pears and a hint of peach (or is apricot, nectarine…) came to the front before fading to that same tart, minerally end. . Looking above I see a mention of tangerine; have to remember that one moving forward.

Hmm, now for the rating part. This is a really nice wine. It was great with the Asian fare and held up to some Mexican a few nights later. Just not sure that I am willing to pay this price unless my socks are knocked off. Especially with the similar structured and tasting Marcel Hugg wines available at TJ’s. I feel like I am slighting this one by calling it “Pricey”. Maybe the winery should have called this on “Tough break”.

Rating: Pricey

Price: $14.25 direct from the winery

What They Said:

Per the winery “We’ve been in the wine business for over thirty years so we have seen some pretty wild swings in supply and demand. In 1974 people thought we were foolish planting Pinot Noir in the Anderson Valley especially since the experts had previously recommended Cabernet Sauvignon and French Colombard. Our decision has since been validated as vineyard after vineyard in the Anderson Valley is now being planted with Pinot Noir. The downside of the popularity and growing reputation of Anderson Valley Pinot is that the price of the grapes has skyrocketed. Check out the competition; it is hard to find a Pinot Noir for less than $20. If you try to buy a French Burgundy you will be paying twice, thrice and upward. Despite consistently selling out of Pinot Noir we are committed to keeping prices reasonable so that all of our good customers from our earlier, leaner years can still afford Navarro wines. 89% of this wine was grown right here in the Anderson Valley.

It was aged for ten months in seasoned French oak barrels adding toast and vanilla flavors to Pinot’s berry and plum core. You shouldn’t have to plan a white-tie dinner to open a bottle of Pinot Noir; this wine tastes great when you are garbed in blue jeans and a tee shirt. Gold Medal winner. Best of Class.”

What I Think:

The winery called this one “Fanfare for the common man”. It seems that they are finding it increasingly difficult to make a Pinot at this price point given the varietals overall trajectory especially coupled with the growing acclaim of the Anderson Valley and Mendocino in this arena. Given that I enjoyed the ’04, still have half a case or so, I was looking forward to getting into this one.

In a word this wine is delicate. You can tell from the second you see it in the glass. The color is very light. On the nose again you get light fruit and once on the palate further confirmed, as strawberry and raspberry appear front and center. We had this with salmon which was a worthy pairing though the yogurt sauce my wife often uses through it some fits. On day 2 the wine was showing a little more, it had integrated nicely and was much more well rounded. You get a big nose full of cherries and loads of light fruit forward on the tongue. The mid-palate starts to show some vanilla and other qualities I would describe as almost barrel like which linger on through the finish. Still a bit left so perhaps I will open one of those ‘04’s for a side by side comparison…See the 2004 write-up if you are interested in the results. All in all, this wine is a quality effort though not on the same level as a year earlier. I have a few $10 bottles of Pinot waiting in the rack that I would have to imagine are on the same level as this one so I’m going to call it “Pricey”.

Rating: Pricey

Price: $12.00 @ Friend/Gift

What They Said:

Per the winery Found this write up in regards to their 2003. “Fermented in stainless steel vats at a controlled temperature of 28°C. Maceration with the skins is for 12 days, with frequent and delicate pumping over. The malolactic fermentation takes place immediately after racking. About half of the product is aged for six months in 2nd and 3rd cycle oak barriques, the other half ages in stainless steel vats.This wine can be appreciated when young, but can also be left to mature in bottles for a few years. The Rubino goes well with entrées, boiled and white meat courses.

Composition : : 50% Sangiovese, 25% Merlot, 25% Cabernet
Colour : Fairly intensive ruby red with violet nuances.
Bouquet : Intense and ample, prevalently of red berries, flowery.
Flavour : Light tannic structure, smooth, with a lasting back taste.”

What I Think:

I consider finding any information about this wine on the internet one of my greatest research tasks to date. A co-worker brought this back from Italy for me a few years ago so I had little info as to what it was to work with and the bottle didn’t provide much more. For a year I thought the winery was Rubino and the winery name only appeared in small print on the foil around the cork. I could make quite a detective if I wasn’t spending all my time on this blog…

Onto the wine, on opening this you were immediately greeted with multiple levels of fruit, both red and of the darker variety, along with a very strong sense of a dry, flowery backbone. Once in the mouth the fruit comes forward but quickly fades to peppers and continues to become dryer working its way towards a flowery, violet finish. As an aside I try not to check the notes on what my research found until after I have tasted the first glass of a wine and recorded my impression. And drum roll…this was the first time I have ever been able to identify violets! My wife thinks I just got lucky. I had this wine open over a five day period and what was amazing is that with each day the different stages of this wine became more prevalent with the peppers on the mid-palate quickly disappearing and the fruit leading straight to the flowers. By the last day the fruit was around for what seemed like a split second before the tongue smacking dryness took over. Surprisingly, I think I liked it. Given that this is $12 and therefore should be rated on the more expensive scale I will call it Pricey. That being said, given that I am usually quite disappointed with Italian wine this one was an uplifting experience and if I see a wine like this in the future at a reasonable price point I am likely to give it a go

Rating: Pricey

Price: $13.99 @ BevMo imported by Negociants Napa

What They Said:

Per the winery “Good Spring rains were followed by the usual dry Summer, but an unexpectedly cool January was perfect for the vines to ripen and maintain healthy canopies. This cool period led to the grapes in most regions maintaining excellent natural acid levels and very deep rich colours. A long, cool Autumn also meant that each parcel of fruit would be harvested at its optimum flavour development. February and March were quite dry and balmy with cool nights and warm days, ideal conditions for the development of both Shiraz and Viognier flavours.

Yalumba Y Series Shiraz Viognier 2004 showcases the distinct varietal characters of these two grape varieties, co-fermented to capture their synergy.

This wine is medium to deep crimson purple in colour with a very attractive nose showing warmer aromatics of heady ripe berry fruits. The Viognier lends fragrant notes of apricot blossom and musk. The palate is very approachable, with ripe raspberry and ju-jube-like flavours, quite plush and smooth finishing with a long velvety texture.”

What I Think:

We had this one in Australia and found it to be quite a good wine. I think this price seems a bit high as I remembered paying 10ASD or about $8 there. Just checked and the 2005 (the vintage we had down under) appears to be available pretty widely for $10. By the way, all the Australian wineries seem to have these cool tasting notes don’t they! For almost all the Aussie wines I get the have nice downloadable pdfs with the wine information.

We tried to pair this one with pasta and it just couldn’t handle the acidity. Perhaps this was common knowledge but I thought all big wines could stand up to just about anything. Now I know they need to be big on tannins, not big on fruit! So I gave it a pass for that error on my part. The next night we tried with chicken fajitas and again had the same result here. So what did we learn? The important lesson here is that Shiraz should not be on the table unless you see a cut of meat. Since that wasn’t to be on the menu this week I tried some on it’s own to much better results. This wine looks super dark in the glass and shows all dark fruit on the nose, much as I tried to find any hint of the Viognier it subtleness was too much for me to identify. In the mouth it has a rich, supple feel that led to some dark forward fruit. In the mid-palate I was surprised that I could actually sense the ju-jube flavors mentioned in the wineries notes. The finish is where I seemed to notice the blend the most as it was much smoother than I would have anticipated. All in all this turned out to be a moderate effort. It certainly didn’t match the nostalgia that I had hoped to reclaim and the 2004 won’t find its way to my house again. On the other hand I do anticipate with a bottle of the 2005 ($9.99 at BevMo) meeting a steak on my table sometime soon as we will once again try to relive the memories from our long lost vacation.

Rating: Pricey

Price: $19.99 @ Friend/Gift

What They Said:

Per the winery “Aromas of rich chocolate, coffee, and cassis with notes of mixed dark fruit and raspberry. Extraordinarily rich and mouth-filling, with flavors of cassis, coffee and toasted oak that grace a well-structured body, full of texture with ripe, supple tannins on the lingering finish. 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, 1% Petit Verdot.”

What I Think:

So last Friday I had some friends over for dinner and we had a few bottles of wine which has led me to some consternation as to whether or not I should attempt to chronicle those wines here. I have already decided that those consumed at a restaurant are out, those at friend’s houses are in most cases to be out, but what about these.

There is one major issue in that I’m not going to be sitting there with a pen and paper with guests present. Meaning at the end of the night, if the bottle is gone which is all but a certainty, I am left with an impression of the wine but find it hard to reconstruct the details, especially after the second or third bottle has been opened. Perhaps in the future I will try to siphon off a taste to jog my memory. Or I could just not post them and mitigate the risk of friends getting mad at me for giving their wines bad ratings…

So now on to this one, I remember a wine that was very well structured, a pleasant texture in the mouth with nice rounded fruit flavors that lasted throughout, The finish was smooth as the fruit gradually gave way to the oak and tannins that lingered on to the end. I don’t remember it being overly complex as the flavor profile stayed largely the same, on the up side it the taste lingered in your mouth long after the wine was down your throat. Would I buy this bottle myself, in a restaurant? Yes, if I didn’t see something else I knew that appealed to me. Going to the store to get a bottle? Likely not as I would prefer to get two $10 bottles. This is certainly a good bottle of wine well worth consuming if you are comfortable dropping that kind of money on a bottle. I’m not so at this price point my expectations have extended to having a memorable wine tasting experience. While there is nothing bad to be said this one simply didn’t have that “Wow” factor.

Rating: Pricey

Price: $30.00 @ Friend/Gift

What They Said:

Per the winery “A classic golden straw-colored Chardonnay, showing a full body with the elegance of a crisp finish influenced by the coastal fog the Russian River Valley. This wine features a beautiful balance of tropical fruits, mineral notes, oak and bright lively acidity.

This balance will offer fullness in the mouth, without being unctuous, and ends in a delicate lingering finish.”

What I Think:

This was a very interesting Chardonnay, darker in color and minerally on the nose. On the tongue it was almost slightly syrupy, I think this comes from spending some time aging on the skins. In the mouth it tastes of peach, apples and lemon that lingered briefly before the oak took over. Per the winery it was aged 100% in Oak with 40% being new. Not sure if that is a lot or not. I will have to pay some attention moving forward to see what ratio it takes to remove this from my flavor profile when it comes to Chardonnay.

Rating: Pricey