Violets & Tar

"Violets and tar" has to be one of my favorite wine descriptors.  I can't remember when I first heard it but it fits a Rhone-style (Grenache/Syrah) red blend like a glove.  Soft purple berries and spice.  What could be better?

By the way, honorable mention for wine descriptors goes to cardboard, new garden hose and wet dog; all of which strike me as being, shall we say, less than complimentary.  Cardboard?  Really?  Guess that creative writing class paid off for somebody.

So about a month ago a fella was in the store who quickly revealed himself to be a wine industry insider.  His eyes would scan the shelves and when they settled on something, he quickly grabbed it and put it on the counter.  No fooling around.  He knew what he was after.  So I called him on it and sure enough, he was retired from the business in another state.  And I think to myself - opportunity!  Here's a resource brain for me to pick.  Someone who knows wine and isn't a commissioned Atlanta wine salesman.

The first bottle he picked up was Folded Hills Syrah from Santa Ynez Valley, California.  He couldn't believe we had it here.  While he didn't give me his verbal violets and tar appraisal, his excitement said it all.  His other two purchases were similar Euro-red blends from France and Spain.  So he was a violets and tar guy after all, even if he didn't say it.

So before he left I hit him up for some recommendations which included Andrew Murray and Tablas Creek Central Coast, California Rhone-style blends.  Oh yeah, he's violets and tar all the way.

The best thing about Rhone-style red blends has always been value.  Ten dollars can get you a decent red dinner wine.  Tablas Creek is exceptional at fifty.

Domus Aurea

We intended this post to be about the Big Red Monster Paso Robles wines but as often happens with California wines, information about the stuff is lacking.  In our research we learned one corporate entity contracted with another to secure the juice for someone else to make the wine before it then gets put into the bottle with the ever so cute label.  That, apparently, is all they want you to know.  Buzzkill.  Then, if you want a real mega-buzzkill, check their ever so cute posts on facebook.  It's as if they think we're stupid.

If you like good California Cab and Zin, you should pick up the Monsters.  We have been assured by our usually very reliable vendor, they are indeed quite good.  Even if they aren't forthcoming with product information.

Clos Quebrada de Macul is a family-owned, hillside vineyard overlooking Macul, Chile's oldest wine region.  It was planted in 1970 before grapes were valued for quality and not merely as tonnage.  Hillside vineyards are more labor intensive with lower yields so unless you have a hopeful vision for the future of the wine business, this move wouldn't make sense.  This time they guessed right.

The owners sold their grapes for twenty years before American investment money facilitated the building of a physical winery in the early 1990's.  The first Domus Aurea Cabernet Sauvignon was released in 1996.  The wine always uses estate grown fruit made with a non-interventionist winemaking ethic.  Their website offers tasting notes for the last fifteen vintages so these are indeed cellar selections.

The 2019 vintage is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot.  The color is ruby red with purple hues.  The nose is herbal, balsamic, black currant, black cherry and fig.  In the mouth the wine shows dense power and structure with evident oak and fine tannins.  The finish shows more berries and minerality.

The descriptors above are from their website.  We tasted the wine a month ago.  It would compare favorably with California Cabs at considerably higher prices.  As a formidable steak wine, it should be decanted for at least an hour before serving.

Domus Aurea is one of a family of Chilean wines we tasted before purchasing this week.  Our pricing reflects fine value for each type.

Dao

Big, bold, tannic and dry.  V-e-r-y dry.  That's what we remember about Portuguese Dao from about fifty years ago.  But things change in the world's commercial wine industry and success and investment money breed imitation.  Much from Old Europe is now a little less dry and a little less tannic, reflecting the new New World palate.  

Fifty years ago wine was weird for most of us.  Beer and liquor were our mainstream beverages.  Wine was weird.  At that time, Mateus Rose was a popular Portuguese product marketed by Sogrape, the largest producer of Dao wines.  It was a game changer for many of us and in hindsight, it was a good introduction to the world of wine.

Today wine is a part of our culture.  So we were stunned when we tasted the 2018 Casa da Passarella Porguguese Dao.  It was as if we flashed back fifty years to that simpler time when wines more accurately reflected their European roots and not the modern Americanized version.  In all honesty, this Dao is the most European wine in the store.

The Douro Valley is the most famous wine region of Portugal.  Along with Vinho Verde to the west, Douro occupies the northernmost part of that country.  Douro is known for Port wine and the great grape there is Touriga Nacional which has its origins just to the south in Dao.  

Remember the Phoenicians from a couple posts ago?  They were the world's first wine traders and in all likelihood, they were responsible for making Dao one of the oldest viticultural sites in the region.  Dao is a plateau (500-1500 ft elev.) surrounded on three sides by mountains with the Dao River running through it.  The climate is temperate, moderated by the conditions just described, with long hot summers and rainy winters.  The soils are granite and schist and the diurnal temperature shifts there beneficially enhance the grape acidity to balance its fruit.

In our research for this post we consulted three websites.  All were informative but portugal.com went further.  They call Dao "Portuguese Burgundy."  High praise, since Burgundy is the finest wine region in the world.  They say Dao exhibits "complexity, elegance, balance and maturity."  We also found a review for this wine that said, "powerful, concentrated, not weighty but intense with blackfruits giving it richness."

Food affinities should include any red meat dish that is noticably spiced, preferably with a sauce or gravy.  Stew would be nice.  Decant.

Preface by Skipstone

Short of tasting a wine and knowing its quality, a wines label is as good of a selling point as any.  If that wine has a good reputation, then your expectations reflect the promise the label represents.  Vineyard terroir and viticulture along with hands-on quality control at the winery are what ensures that quality reputation.

Second label wines were started in the 1800's in Bordeaux, France to utilize juice from younger vines in prominant vineyards, vines that weren't quite ready for prime time; so a second label was created to get that juice out to market.  It made sense for both the winery and for wine lovers of that product.  Wineries could profitably market this extra juice and their customers could claim a certain brush with fame, even if it was just the second best wine from an illustrious property.

Flash forward: Wineries in California and elsewhere see this phenomenon and decide to cash in.  New World second labels, while often very good quality wines in themselves, weren't necessarily from the same vineyards as their namesakes.  (If the truth be known, some of the namesakes marketed as the primary labels weren't exactly what they were advertised as either...but that's a different subject.)  Then, in time, as the second label gains repute and market share, it is usually spun off; that is, it's sold, usually to an industry giant and whatever juice had previously gone into the bottle would be completely different henceforth.

Preface by Skipstone is different.  It is an authentic second label.  As a matter of fact, as its name implies, Preface may more accurately be called an introductory wine to Skipstone's better wines.  But that declaration may even understate things.  According to one reviewer, Preface is already of similar quality to Skipstone's more pricey offerings.  In other words, Preface is a fine red wine appreciably ranked with its peers in the Skipstone stable.

Preface is a Bordeaux blend of 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 9% Malbec and 6% Cabernet Franc.  The cool 2018 vintage meant a longer hangtime for the grapes resulting in "full flavored ripenesss and enhanced aromatics."  Skipstone's organic estate fruit is harvested at night to retain freshness.

Philippe Melka is Skipstone's consulting winemaker.  His record for scoring 100 point critically acclaimed wines is second only to Thomas Rivers Brown in California.

The North Coast AVA

As often happens in the blogging business, you start out with one topic in mind only to be overtaken by something else that commands your attention.  This time we started with Dough Wines of St. Helena, California which have been a popular item here at the store.  The variety currently in stock is their North Coast Sauvignon Blanc which, if you go to doughwines.com, they advertise on the same page as their Napa Sauv Blanc at twice the price.  So the question looms - Is the Napa appellation wine really twice as good as the North Coast?

Before moving on from Dough, since we are so critical of winery websites, we should commend them for a wonderful site.  Without romanticizing or fictionalizing their story like so many sites, they just say what they are about and it seems to be as much about food as about wine.  The site is tastefully done if that doesn't sound too punny.  

The Dough winemaker says the juice for their North Coast Sauv Blanc comes from two vineyards; one a warmer locale, the other, distinctly cooler.  The fruit from the warmer is more tropical; the cooler one, crisper with an acidic structure.  Blending them together results in a "lively and refreshing, gooseberry/tropical" quaff.  

And that brings us more to the point - North Coast appellation wines are often blends from disparate places created by big business wineries requiring huge volumes to maintain their mass market shelf space.  Such wines are not vying for best-of-kind status.  They are making a commodity for the marketplace, wine that meets a respectable quality standard for the North Coast appellation.

The North Coast AVA (American Viticultural Area) is huge...as in three million acres huge!  It includes all of Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake Counties and parts of Solano and Marin Counties. It's shape is a diagonal rectangle measuring a hundred twenty miles north to south and fifty miles inland.  Any further into the interior and the climate is considerably hotter.  Its proximity to the ocean provides the cooling fog and breezes that define its existence.

More than half of all California wineries are located in the North Coast AVA.  Half of all functioning organic wineries are located there.  Fifty-four smaller AVAs are located within the North Coast AVA.  The Russian River Valley, Oakville, Alexander Valley are brand names in themselves but they could just identify themselves by the North Coast appellation.  But it is always an indicator of quality for a wine label to narrow down their location.  We know the three AVAs above are Napa/Sonoma locales.  Benmore Valley, Yorkville Highlands and Suisun Valley are three from elsewhere in North Coast.  Could they be comparable to Napa/Sonoma?

Gros Manseng

Gros Manseng is one of three grapes in the Manseng family.  Both Gros and Petit Manseng are white grapes; Manseng Noir is the red variety.  Petit Manseng is the most covetted of the three.  It obviously makes some fine white wine.  Manseng Noir has fallen out of favor and is consequently rarely planted nowadays. 

We're writing about Gros Manseng now because we got in a pretty good example of the type courtesy of Boutinot USA, one of the really neat importers providing us with good quality, everyday-priced wines.  UVA Non Grata means "unwanted grape" and it's the name attached to our Gros Manseng wine. It's a 100% varietal example, which is rare for this usual blending grape.  In case you are wondering, Gros Manseng is a Rodney Dangerfield type, it gets little respect in the business, hence, the Non Grata name.

Gros Manseng wine can be made into two styles depending on the harvest time.  If picked early is makes a crisp, floral, citrussy (lemony) light dry white.  If picked a couple weeks or more later, you can make a richer, more complex wine with a smorgasbord of tropical fruit flavors.  UVA leans more toward the latter.  It's a fruit bomb.

So if this is such an ordinary type, what's the point here?  UVA is for the customer who is curious about different wine types.  It's a good example of Gros Manseng AND it makes a $12.99 retail.  Case closed.  Think of it as a nice picnicky seafood/chicken salad accompaniment.  In a more macro sense, Gros means large and that applies to both the size of the berries AND the bunches, which means economically, this is a winner for the industry.  Not only that, it's an easy grower in the vineyard too!

Gros Manseng finds its French home in the southwestern (Basque) corner of the country where the geneticists think it originated.  It may be related to Spanish Albarino.  The Jurancon district is ground zero for Gros Manseng but most whites labeled IGP Cotes de Gascogne use it to flesh-out out the blend.

Think of it as late-summer porch sitting wine!

Cabernet Franc (Balance & Elegance)

This isn't new territory for us.  Not by a long shot.  With more than forty years in the business, our paths with Cabernet Franc have crossed many times.  This current excursion just adds some new interesting stuff to what we already had.

Such as: Some time ago Cab Franc had a mutative crossing with Sauvignon Blanc in a vineyard somewhere in western France resulting in the birth of the Cabernet Sauvignon varietal.  We now know Cab Franc also parented both Merlot and Carmenere.  What we learned is that Cabernet Franc has an unstable genome; not as unstable as Pinot Noir, but still capable of mutating on occassion.

We have also learned more about the birthplace of Cab Franc.  We always knew it was from somewhere in western France.  We now know the place to be toward the south, perhaps in the Libournais (right bank) region of Bordeaux or further south toward the Basque region.  So we've narrowed it down.  Date of birth?  Written documentation of the type exists in the eighteenth century so it may go back to the seventeenth.

The right bank of Bordeaux is home to the most expensive wine in the world, Chateau Petrus.  Saint Emilion, Pomerol and to a lesser extent, Fronsac, all feature Cabernet Franc as part of a blend that elevates Merlot to its proper place as a fine wine grape.  So is Cabernet Franc just a blending grape?  Well, yes and no.  You can't deny right bank success, so yes, it is a blending grape par excellence!  (BTW: Italy is doing something similar with Cabernet Franc in their Super Tuscan blends.)  Granting that, to fully appreciate any bit player in a blend, you really need to look at the grape as a varietal in itself.  That's where our "balance and elegance" post subtitle comes in.

The finest varietal Cabernet Franc wine in the world comes from the cooler climate Loire Valley to the north where it makes a lighter colored, lighter bodied, higher acid red that features a somewhat bell peppery, tart fruit character.  It's food wine, for sure.   Pair it with steak, sausage, roast bird.  To the south in the warmer climes, a richer bodied wine emerges with cherry and dark berry flavors.  It is those qualities that endear Cab Franc grapes to the wine blenders of the world.  That and the sturdy reliability of the plant.

Cabernet Franc, like Cabernet Sauvignon, is planted everywhere there is a winemaking culture.  Its popularity explains the Cab Sauv plantings; its durability and reliability explain Cab Franc.  Look at it as an insurance policy: If the Cab Sauv crop turns out to be not so good, you can fall back on the earlier harvested Cab Franc.

But there's more: Bell pepper is a wine flavor not everyone appreciates.  Some consider it to be a flaw in the Cab Franc profile.  As it turns out, that flavoring pays dividends for the grape vine.  Methoxypyrazines are aromatic compounds responsible for the bell pepper effect.  They are also reponsible for the durability and reliability of the vine as they repel pests.  So there you have it.  You want healthy productive grape vines?  Accept a little pepper in your wines.

Still want to avoid the bell pepper?  Cellar your Cabernet Franc for five years or so.  That element along with the acidity should diminish.

(Much of the above was taken from winefolly.com which we wholeheartedly recommend.)

Marcona Almonds

Well, this is a first.  It's always been about wines or cheeses here at the ol' blogspot but since we got in another load of Marcona Almonds, it definitely makes sense to promote them here.

In a way the almond history parallels the wine history we depicted in the recent Phoenicians post.  This time the history starts in the early Bronze Age around 3-4,000bc in Jordan where almond trees were first domesticated.  They were then propagated throughout Iran and the region on the eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea called Levant.  Maybe the Phoenicians, the world's the first wine traders, got in on the ground floor of the almond business too.

There are two types of almond trees.  The older variety produces bitter fruit that actually contains cyanide.  The one that has the sweeter fruit, not surprisingly, is the variety that was propagated.  Almonds are not true nuts, by the way.  They are drupes, seeds within a larger fruit, comparable to a peach pit.  In fact, the almond tree falls into the same classification as peach trees.  

Almond trees require a Mediterranean climate of hot summers and cold wet winters and that has been the historic weather of the Central Valley of California.  California has a million acres planted in almond trees which produce 2.8 billion pounds of almonds annually, that's 80% of the world's almonds.  That production is good for an income of 4.9 billion dollars, making it California's most valuable product...but not for long.  The trees require a lot of rain and, of course, currently the state has little.  Almonds are not sustainable in the current climate so most people think the end is in sight for California almonds. 

But that's not what this post is about.  Marcona Almonds are from Spain and they are different from other types.  They are shorter, rounder, softer, sweeter and moister AND they are nutritionally dense.  They are a superfood that we will spare you chapter and verse about here.  Suffice it to say, they are packed with vitamins and minerals and may reduce heart disease by lowering LDL cholesterol.

Marcona Almonds have a butteriness in texture, aroma and flavor that works well with cheeses.  If you want to pair them with wines, Champagne and Sherries are proven affiliates.  We think white wines in general might be worth a try.

Ventisquero Pinot Noir Reserva

This is one of those everyday-priced wines that shows the quality of a higher priced model, like their twenty-five dollar version.  Since we've tasted the two side by side, we feel we can safely say, it's basically the same stuff.  And by the way, the higher tier pinot is no slouch.

Ventisquero means "glacier" in the local Chilean dialect and it refers to the great glaciers of Patagonia which they feel symbolize character and a perfect balance of movement, energy and force.  Since we're talking Pinot Noir here, let's just stay with character and balance.

Vina Ventisquero was established in 1998 by Gonzalo Vial, CEO of a major fresh foods company.  Their flagship vineyard and winery was constructed in coastal Maipo Valley but in quick order they purchased vineyard land in the Leyda, Casablanca, Colchagua and Huasco Valleys.  Today they have 1500 hectares (3700 acres) in vines.  They export one and a half million cases of wine annually.

Now called Ventisquero Wine Estates, it is one of the five largest in Chile and while their growth has been explosive, it has also been thoughtful.  Felipe Tosso is the head winemaker who has been with the company from the beginning.  Australian winemaker John Duval came along a couple years later.  Both have impeccable resumes reflecting employment with some of the great wineries of the world.  Together they use their own soil-mapping methods to get the right varietals placed in the perfect locales for optimal terroir-driven results.  The vineyards for our Pinot Noir are along the coast of Casablanca where the ocean's cooling Humbolt Current moderates the temperatures for that cool weather grape.

Chile is bordered by the Pacific Ocean on the left and the Andes Mountains to the right.  Because of their unique geography, they never were affected by the phylloxera louse that killed nearly all of the vines of Europe in the late 1800s.  The louse that brought the disease to Europe then proceeded to decimate the rest of the world.  Chile is the only wine producing nation to be unaffected.  They are the only wine producers who have not had to graft their vines onto American disease resistent rootstocks; so the theory goes that the production of Chile is emblematic of what European wine was pre-Phylloxera.

Thermovinification

Your new fifty cent word for the day is thermovinification and the process is just what it sounds like, the application of heat to the winemaking process.  Actually heat has always been a part of the process if you consider what happens when you pile up grape bunches and maybe allow a whole bunch fermentation to happen.  Heat is inescapable in this common winemaking practice.  Thermovinification though is the deliberate use of near boiling temperatures to alter grape chemistry before fermentation.

Ten years ago we wrote about Flash Detente, Italian technology that flashed a blast of 185 degree steam heat onto grapes, then immediately cooling them.  It was, more or less, an instantaneous de-contamination.  The process effectively dealt with the problems of Brettanomyces taint and pyrazines in unripe grapes.  At the time there were just two of the contraptions in California.  Now there are much more.  Thermovinification is a little different.  It is often a one hour "pre-fermentation hot maceration."  Though not as hot as Flash Detente, it effectively extracts anthocyanins (red pigments) for enhanced color and phenolic compounds that affect the taste and mouthfeel of a wine.

So why are we writing about the subject now?  We recently met a North Georgia winemaker who educated us a bit about the stuff which, as often happens, lead us to investigate further.

We now have a fifty year window on the wine industry and we've seen huge changes in wine quality and wine business dynamics.  What heat in the winemaking process has done is to clean up ordinary grapes by breaking down cellular walls to release the better qualities in those ordinary grapes.  If the heating is overdone the wines will taste cooked and there are plenty of examples of that on store shelves.  But if done right, the heat bonds red and blue colors into a brighter purple; it boosts the berry fruitiness of the wine and it leaves tannins that are softer and rounder than before.

While all of this seems to be good, wines that are so treated show less complexity over all and a uniformity that may be considered to be the commodification of wines in general.  Wines so treated become the singular "new normal" style.  Distinction goes out the window.  Since heat treatment shows its greatest value in making ordinary grapes palatable, then the great beneficiary of the process on the business side of things is the large wine industry player.  They can profitably over-crop a harvest and then remediate it with thermovinification.

California Red Blends

No research for this one - shooting straight from the hip.

If you rule out what they are doing with Pinot Noir nowadays, there are basically two types of red blends coming out of California.  The kind I grew up with and still remember fondly is what is loosely called a field blend.  It is a mixture of blue collar grapes like Zinfandel, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Carignan and others that just happen to be available for that purpose.  It's kitchen sink wine.  The second type of red blend is the classic Cabernet-Merlot blend that may include the other three Bordeaux grapes and now, acceptably, Syrah.

Let's dig deeper.

What was so charming about the historic field blend was the naturalness of the product.  You took from the vineyard what it gave you and made a wine out of it.  For the consumer, it seemed to just happen.  You could enjoy the wine in a number of settings as long as your pretentions were held in check.

Fifty years ago one of the great sellers on store shelves everywhere was Gallo Hearty Burgundy.  It was a field blend, we were told, that was mostly Zinfandel.  In the trade this off-dry, muddy mess was jokingly called Hardly Burgundy.  With the right promotional prompting, however, it would become a most successful subterfuge.  

Since Gallo created this model and other large players jumped on the bandwagon, we now have a style of red blend that is a direct descendent of Hearty Burgundy.  Advancements in winemaking technology and the advent of wine laboratories along with promotional efforts keyed to social media and elsewhere have made this model ubiquitous across America.  Needless to say, we are not a fan.

Meritage or Bordeaux blends, the Cabernet-Merlot blends mentioned above, are a completely different project.  Field Blends are wine for the people; Meritage wines, with their structure and breeding, seem to be intended for the aristocracy.  And since Cabernet Sauvignon is, after all, one of the half dozen noble grapes of the world, it seems to make sense.  

The Meritage wine category was officially created in 1988 in California.  It was intended to approximate the Bordeaux model that has been around since the 18th century.  This kind of wine shows breeding, refinement and structure from nose to finish.

The Parings (Central Coast), Matthews Claret (Washington) and Girard Artistry (Napa) are Meritage wines currently in the store.  Angels & Cowboys (Sonoma) and True Grit (Mendocino) are a couple of reputable field blends in the store.  All are to be recommended.

Knudsen, Erath & Argyle

Knudsen and Argyle are both Oregon pinots on our store shelves currently and Erath has been an old standby here for a long time.  Let's tie them all together.  All three are located in the Dundee Hills wine appellation within the larger Willamette Valley.  The very first commercial winery in Dundee Hills was Knudsen, established in 1975.  Very shortly thereafter Knudsen partnered with Erath to create the Knudsen-Erath wine company which produced great pinots until 1987.  Then Knudsen reverted to grower status and became a primary grape supplier to Erath.  Argyle is the most awarded winery in Oregon and when Knudsen re-created their family-named wine label in 2014, they did it using Argyle's winemaker.

Dundee Hills is home to forty-four wineries currently with half of them being household names to Oregon pinot lovers.  The three listed in our title are certainly among the best.  Located south of Portland in the northwestern part of the Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills is indeed a very special wine venue.  It lies at a higher elevation than most of the valley; has a maritime climate, courtesy of the Pacific Ocean; and it has Jory soil, three different clays with organic matter on top.  The appellation contains seven thousand acres with thirteen hundred currently in vines.

Oregon has the strictest wine laws in the country.  If a wine is labeled as a varietal, the wine in the bottle must be at least 90% of that varietal.  If a wine appellation is shown on a label, the contents must be 95% from that place.  If a label says "Oregon" it must be 100% Oregon wine.  This contrasts with California where only 75% has to be what the label says it is and 25% of the contents don't even have to be California wine.

Now here's what we learned about Oregon wines while researching the subject: The Willamette Valley appellation name is a legally protected product IN EUROPE!  It has PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) status due to both the uniqueness of the terroir and traditional winemaking and the stringency of Oregon's laws.  The only other American wine venue to be so protected is Napa Valley.  With this kind of protection in place, fraud and misrepresentation from parties unrelated to those places should not happen in Europe.

Goat Cheese & Wine

When the butteriness of a cheese gets cut by the acidity of a sip of red wine, it's like a new door of appreciation is opened for what the two bring together.  Of course, that kind of magic depends on the pairing.  Each wine and cheese combination is different and some work better than others.  In general though, the satisfaction derived from the experience relies on the acidity of the wine being neutralized by the butteriness of the cheese.  Every other characteristic in the exchange seems to take a back seat to that action.

With goat cheeses the equation changes a little and things get a bit more complicated.  Goat cheeses, themselves, are acidic and the latent butteriness and characteristics like minerality or fruitiness/herbaceousness may be subdued.  It's the acidity that needs to be reckoned with in this kind of wine pairing. 

Unlike the dominant richness of cow cheese, the acidity of goat requires a high acid wine to go head to head with it.  In the Loire Valley of France where a goat cheese/wine culture thrives, the reigning regional red and white wines of choice are Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc.  The Cabernet is a lighter style, herbaceous, tartly acidic version.  The Sauvignon Blanc is the familiar mineral-driven, citrussy style.  In both cases the acidity is the paramount quality needed to face up to the acidic cheese.

Just because every wine-cheese combination is different, that doesn't mean there isn't a familiarity with the experience that we all know.  Once our mouths get coated with cheese, every ensuing bite/sip reinforces an increasingly comfortable experience.  It's kind of like enjoying really stinky cheese.  Once you get it past your nose, it's smooth sailing.  You just let your taste buds do the rest.

So what are the wines to pair with goat cheese?  For acidity you definitely want to go European and as is so often the case, it's Italy that seems to get it right.  Virtually any Italian red or white would work with goat cheese.  With whites it's wide open.  Virtually any Euro dry white wine has the acidity to stand up to the wang of good goat cheese.

What prompts this post?  Well, it's the new cheeses in the store, of course.  They include a goat brie and a couple soft goat logs.  AND our incredible European wine selection!  So stop in!

Phoenicians

When writing about Rioja last time we learned the ancient Phoenicians had a hand in planting the vineyards there.  Phoenician international trade activity extended from 1550bc to 300bc so whatever planting was done there probably bears no resemblance to what Rioja was to become.  What struck us as significant though was that, along with the twelve hundred year trading activity, they ventured so far inland as Rioja.

The Phoenicians hailed from what is now known as Lebanon and during the heyday of their activity they ruled the Mediterranean trading roost.  That they planted Spanish vineyards isn't new to us but what we have now learned fleshes out what we thought we knew before.

The Caucasus region of western Asia; what is now known as Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia along with parts of Turkey and Iran; is where the vitis vinifera wine grapes got their start.  Evidence of wild grapes and winemaking are known to exist in the region as far back as 6,000bc with steady production beginning around 4,000bc.  

The Phoenicians are credited with commercializing the earliest wine industry.  Those wine images in pyramids and elsewhere in Egypt depended on one of their land trade routes from the Caucasus.  Their greatest impact however, would have been what they did over the Mediterranean Sea.  

Greece, North Africa, Sicily, the Iberian Peninsula and the ancient eastern Mediterranean region of Levant are all known to be stopping points for Phoenician wine traders.  Vines were delivered to the regions that were to become Lebanon, Syria, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Spain, France and Portugal.  Where the rivers were navigable, they ventured inland; hence, a stop in Rioja became possible.

The Phoenicians, themselves, became skilled viticulturalists and winemakers.  They also traded in winemaking equipment and amphorae, "Canaanite jars", for transporting wine even further inland from stopping points like Rioja.  France would have been the beneficial next stop heading up into Europe. 

Rioja

Campillo El Sueno Rioja Blanco is not standard-issue Spanish white wine.  Our vendor called it a "gem", which it should be, considering its twenty dollar suggested retail; and since we now have it in the store (with a much better price), we thought this post might work to promote it.  The only problem is there is little information available about the stuff.  So rather than floundering in futility, we thought we would expand our probe to provide an overview of Rioja as a whole.

Rioja is acclaimed as the Bordeaux of Spain...with reservations.  While the wines may be Bordeaux-ish in style, the red Tempranillo grape is a far cry from Bordeaux Cabernet Sauvignon and the white Macabeo/Viura is a far cry from Bordeaux Sauvignon Blanc.  Moreover, things have gotten competitive over there with other Spanish wine regions making claims to the Best-of-Spain mantle.  

Rioja is a 210 square mile wine district in northern Spain lying at the foothills of the Cantabrian Mountains and bisected by the east-west Ebro River.  Three subregions make up the Rioja wine country: Rioja Alta is the greatest of the three and lies in the western half; Rioja Oriental is the least of the three in quality and lies in the eastern half.  On the map these two roughly resemble side by side horizontal rectangles with the smaller Rioja Alavesa, another superior wine region, pancaked on top.  

Most Rioja wines are blends using juice from Rioja Oriental to supplement what is produced from the two better entities.  Our Campillo El Sueno is located in Rioja Alavesa but its 75% Viura/25% Chardonnay grape composition betrays a Rioja Oriental origin. 

Both Alta and Alavesa are higher altitude and continental climate wine regions.  Winemaking is the major difference between the two. Alta maintains its historic old world winemaking style while Alavesa has been modernized in style using the technological improvements of our times.  

Rioja Oriental, also modernized, has a more Mediterranean climate meaning the grapes have accentuated color and alcohol but lack aroma and acidity.  The higher elevation regions with the Atlantic Ocean influence have the acidity, fuller body and brighter fruit that makes them better vineyards.  Rioja Oriental just nicely supplements them.

Only five percent of Rioja Alavesa vineyards are Macabeo grapes so that's why we think the Campillo El Sueno gets its fruit from the Oriental subregion.  Being barrel fermented the wine is oaky from start to finish with bright, juicy lemony fruit and moderate wood spice.

Pedroncelli

Back in 1976 when we were first getting started in this business we don't specifically remember if Pedroncelli was on our store shelves, but we can't ever remember not having Pedroncelli around.  It's such a nice go-to for everyday needs it seems to belong in any store set.  Currently we have five types in the store.

We're writing about them now for a couple reasons.  Pedroncelli's claim to fame has always been Zinfandel and their current Bushnell Vineyard Zin has been such a treat we feel guilty for dissing that grape variety in the past.  Zinfandel is a prolific variety that was pumped up by the California wine industry to be more than it actually is; but for a blue collar wine grape, it's really pretty good...if that makes sense.  

Secondly, if you can read the fine print on the decorative banner at the top of the front label, it says, "Family Owned Since 1927."  That's ninety-five years.  If I had a family business for ninety-five years, I believe I would make that print a little larger.  Just for the record, the wine business isn't known for longevity.  The more we thought about that ninety-five year accomplishment, the more we felt we needed to know more.

Here's what we found:

In 1927 Giovanni Pedroncelli purchased 25 hillside acres in northern Dry Creek Valley and planted them in Zinfandel grapes.  That was right in the middle of the Prohibition Era so he must have been optimistic of a repeal and, sure enough, in 1933 he went from being a grape grower and seller to being a winemaker.  Ten years later he purchased what would become the Bushnell Vineyard and in the 1950s he added the next Pedroncelli generation to the business operations.

pedroncelli.com is where to go if you want to flesh out the whole Pedroncelli story.  Suffice it to say, the family continually innovated and adapted to the times and the market and grew their business opportunely.  Just as the industry went from jugs to 750mls, generics to varietals and then to single vineyard (like Bushnell) and reserve wines; Pedroncelli was with them every step of the way.  Back in the 1950's Pedroncelli was one of the first to put "Sonoma Valley" and "Dry Creek" on their labels.  Whatever mistakes they may have made through the years, must have been minor because today they possess 105 acres in Dry Creek Valley and have fifty year long relationships with growers in the area. 

The Red Mountain AVA

We make no secret about our fondness for Washington State wines.  That's been the case since the late '80s when Washington seemed to come of age over night as a fine wine venue.  Columbia Valley was hailed as Washington's Napa Valley and everything coming out of there seemed to validate the claim.  

At the time we didn't know anything about Washington except that the wine country was on the other side of the mountains from the great coastal urban centers.  The wine country was, in fact, very desert-like compared to the coast but more importantly, it was at the same latitude as Bordeaux and Burgundy, the two finest wine appellations in the world.  That latitude meant a longer growing season with two more hours of sun daily than what California could get.  The diurnal effect of warm days and cool nights meant a balance of acidity and sugars in grapes resulting in rich ripe wine flavors.  Columbia Valley's nutrient poor sandy loam and volcanic soils were also ideal for wine grapes, forcing tap roots deeper for sustenance, taking up mineral trace elements in the process. 

What we didn't know at the time was just how large the Columbia Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA) is.   The Columbia Valley AVA encompasses eleven million acres including a border overlap into Oregon.  Fifty thousand acres are currently in vines and 99% of Washington's wine production calls Columbia Valley home.  Basically Columbia Valley is Washington State in wine terms.

The AVA was created in 1984 at the insistence of Chateau Saint Michelle Winery just as they were discovering the potential quality of their product.  By the time we discovered the greatness of Washington in the late 80s one carveout had already happened.  That was the Yakima Valley AVA.  Since then eight others have been legislated including Red Mountain which was carved out of Yakima in 2001.  

The Red Mountain AVA is the smallest fine wine district in the state.  It encompasses 4,000 acres with 2,000 currently in vines.  It is Cabernet Sauvignon-focused with fifteen wineries currently making award winning wines there.  Hedges Family Estate and Kiona Vineyards are a couple Red Mountain properties that we tasted decades ago and still remember today.  Their hedonistic Cabs are powerful and complex and yet, elegant.  

Our current favorite Washington State winery is Matthews in Walla Walla.  We think their wines are as good as anything coming out of Washington.  At their website matthewswinery.com they are proudly announcing their new Red Mountain wines.  And we can hardly wait.

Barbera

We've been having a lot of fun the last couple years selling all kinds of Italian Barberas here at the store.  Usually our sales have been everyday-priced lighter reds that are frankly perfect for most of our dinner table needs.  Wines like these show cherry, blueberry and raspberry fruit flavors and when put in oak, vanilla and additional complexity.  So why buy inferior bargain Pinot Noir when you could have something as fine, flavorful and food-friendly as Italian Barbera?

While the cheap stuff is nice, should you want to spend twenty or thirty dollars on your dinner red, Barbera offers a sophisticated alternative to Nebbiolo, the great wine of Italy.   While young Nebbiolo can be closed and hard as nails, Barbera shows a soft body with ample accessible fruit.  Again, perfect for most of our dinnertime needs.

Barbera d'Asti is the best known and best quality Barbera in the marketplace.  Asti is located just south and east of the center of the esteemed Piedmont wine appellation in northwest Italy.  The Nizza DOCG appellation lies entirely within the Asti borders and is home to the very finest Barberas.  Nizza boasts century old vines offering intense cherry and blackberry fruit.  Some examples from this region may be as hard and closed as young Nebbiolo so if you choose one of these, have your decanter handy.

Ampelographers are the scientists who study grapevines.  They have determined the Barbera grape had its origins in the nearby Monferrato region.  The earliest written Barbera documentation is from around 1250 but using DNA science, the ampelographers peg its origins back to the seventh century.  It is believed to have a common ancestor with the Cotes du Rhone grape, Mourvedre.

Piedmont is the finest wine appellation in Italy and the Nebbiolo-based Barolos and Barbarescos can command prices beyond most of our pocketbooks.  That is where Barbera comes into play.  It is a vigorous and prolific vine that does well wherever planted.  Nebbiolo is difficult and requires the best vineyard locations.  Barbera is planted everywhere else.  While Nebbiolo sales pay the bills, for those working in the Piemontese wine trade, it's Barbera that is the popular favorite.  

And by the way, if you enjoy the fresh fruity zing that Italian reds show so well, you're probably tasting an incognito Barbera component in the blend. 

How popular is Barbera?  Of the historic Italian wine grapes it ranks third in plantings behind Sangiovese and Montepulciano.  In Piedmont half of all vineyard plantings are Barbera.  In its entirety Italy has fifty thousand acres in Barbera.

The Girard Winery

At the urging of the earnest young salesman, we brought in what were offered to us as the best red and white wine from Girard Winery of Napa Valley.  The red is their Flagship Meritage blend, Artistry; the white is Sauvignon Blanc.  Both carry the Napa Valley appellation.

One of the initial questions we always ask when purchasing California wines is, Who owns them?  Conglomerates and mass marketers who paint by the numbers scare us.  We prefer to put our faith in the hands of a talented winemaker who doesn't unduly manipulate the fruit of a vineyard.  The Paint By The Numbers set will smooth out all of the rough edges and amend the product to fit a form thereby ensuring whatever baby is there, it will go out with the bath water.  The latter hopefully retains the baby and more to make a product of distinction.   

Girard Winery was established in 1974 with vineyards in Oakville and Yountville.  A winery was built in 1980.  The winery namesake, Steve Girard, operated the winery until selling it to Leslie Rudd of Rudd Oakville Estate in the mid 90's.  Girard then opened Benton-Lane Winery in Oregon, eventually selling that to industry giant, Augustin Huneeus.  From our limited research, Rudd apparently did little with the Girard property.

After several years of inactivity, in 2000 the Girard Winery name was sold to long time Napa wine industry insiders Michael Stewart, Chuck Sweeney and Pat Roney.  Stewart and Sweeney were the owners of Vine Cliff Winery; Roney had several ongoing ventures including a custom crush facility called "Bin to Bottle."  Together they formed the company Vintage Wine Estates and accumulated a stable of wineries to include Clos Pegas, Cosentino, Delectus and Swanson.   

Currently the Girard Winery is located in Calistoga in northern Napa between the Vaca and Mayacamas Mountain ranges.  They have a state-of-the-art winery there that emphasizes balance in their winemaking.  Artistry is made from a five acre plot adjacent to Clos Pegas.

Pinot Noir Rose

This post was intended to be a pitch for the Les Boursicottes Sancerre Rose which happens to be 100% Pinot Noir.  It is imported by the remarkable value-oriented Scoperta Importing Company of Cleveland Heights, Ohio.  Much of their portfolio is affordable to most of us.  Les Boursicottes, however, is pricey.  Internet pricing indicates it may be a thirty dollar suggested retail, but our current 2019 vintage needs to go, so it's half of that now.

Scoperta, being a smaller importer, doesn't offer scads of information about their wines so we decided to pivot to a post about Pinot Noir Rose in general, only to learn there isn't much information about roses...period.  Wine Folly does a pretty good job of assigning flavor profiles to different varietal roses but that isn't what we wanted.  We wanted to know what makes Pinot Noir Roses, in particular, so good.

Pinot Noir is the great red grape of the world.  Cabernet Sauvignon is more widely planted and seems to do well in most places, as long as it's not to warm; but Pinot Noir at its best is a truly transcendent experience.  Unfortunately that kind of experience seems to be limited to Burgundy, France and maybe just a couple other places.  In other words, ninety percent of them are disappointing.  So if you want to hedge your shopping bets, get a Cabernet.

But why are Pinot Roses so good?  Here I have to confess - I don't know.  I cut cheese for a living so that one's beyond my pay grade.  But the romantic side of me wants to believe there is something magical about the Pinot grape.  As we said, the grape only does well in a few locations around the world, yet Pinot Roses seem to always overperform.  What gives?

We think we have two explanations.  

The dark and dirty secret about Pinot Noir in the marketplace is that a whole lot of it is rarely the single varietal Pinot Noir wine the consumer thinks it is.  Most California producers know their pinot juice is weak so they blend it with Syrah or something else to achieve fullness.  That way they can make a pretty good red wine.  It's just not Pinot Noir.  Could some of the Pinot Roses out there be similarly blended to achieve a fullness that mediocre pinot lacks?

Secondly, when good ethical producers have a bad vintage, they punt and turn that juice into rose.  So if the terroir that produces reliably good Pinot Noir as a rule is now turned into rose then it follows that that rose would also be superior.  Or something like that.

So have we achieved anything here?  Probably not.  But if you want to try some good rose, try a pinot.  And if you need a good dinner wine, try the Les Boursicottes.

Delft Blue Cheese

Stilton, Roquefort, Gorgonzola.  We've sold 'em all.  Delft is new here.  It's probably more similar to the softer Danish types or real Italian Gorgonzola.  In any event, it's definitely not a crumbler.  

Delft is a rich and creamy cow's milk cheese that is absolutely charming on the palate.  It has a mellow fat buttery taste with underlying sweetness.  There is no saltiness at all to this cheese and coorespondingly, no aggressive wang at the end.  Just a nice clean finish with that same lingering sweetness.  

Visually this cheese appears just like it tastes.  It has a milky whiteness with spare attractive blue veins.  The cheese is firm enough to slice as long as your slice is moderate considering its texture.  Delft is also supposed to be meltable if desired.

Now here's the backstory: Delft is a town on the Schie River in South Holland between Rotterdam and Den Hague.  It is the historic home of the artist Vermeer and the home of Delftware, tin-glazed earthenware, aka Blue de Graven.  

Delftware was a local response to the extreme popularity of Chinese porcelain in the 16th century.  To this day the Delftware Chinese knockoff continues to sell both to new Dutch tourists and to its worldwide fan base.  

What does this have to do with the cheese?  Color-wise the cheese bears a definite resemblance to the earthenware that makes you think there is a connection.  Could Delft Blue Cheese be a knockoff of the dishes?

Wine Crime is Soaring...

Our post title is a shortened version of the title of an article from the February 27th edition of The Guardian online.  The whole article is interesting and entertaining and well worth a look-see, but one point made there made me think this post might be worthwhile.  

The article says, "Today it is estimated that as much as 25% of all wine in the world is not as described."  It is either adulterated, mis-blended or misrepresented on the label.  

When I read this, I recoiled in horror.  WTF!  This is my industry and it's unethical to the tune of 25%?  This is an outrage!  Then, after a little thoughtful introspection, my Claude Rains/Inspector Renault Casablanca catharsis kicked in.  Should we be "shocked" to find gambling/corruption going on here?  Of course not.  The scandals in wine industry history are legion.  If the truth be known, 25% is probably conservative.

Before we go any further, here are two points for clarification:

1. The Guardian article was about real corruption.  It cited a Yellow Tail wine scandal in England last year that involved counterfeit product on store shelves.  That is serious corruption.  

2.  Our beef is more nuanced.  It concerns deliberately loose wine laws that are meant to protect the industry when bad vintages, forest fires, earthquakes and other acts of God occur.  While that intention is good, it makes them vulnerable to exploitation by companies that want to increase their bottom line.  What if those intentions aren't harmless opportunities to increase profitability but rather a deliberate intention to deceive the public?  Is that serious corruption?

Yellow Tail isn't the product of some bucolic, back country Aussie vineyard as it's advertising implies.  It is sourced from some of the cheapest excess bulk juice inventory they can find.  So by misleading the public this way is Yellow Tail a fraud?  It depends.  According to Australian wine law if the label says it is Australian wine all of it must be sourced from that continent.  So to the best of our knowledge, Yellow Tail is legitimate in that respect.  Not so in our domestic wine law where our appellation system declares only 75% of the contents must be from that place.  

Recently we learned one of the premier wine companies of California, known for marketing higher priced wines, was importing a lot of Chilean juice.  In fact, many large California companies do the same thing.  Some own properties down there for that very reason.  It is an ongoing practice.  For many mega-producers fully 25% of  their California-labeled product may not be California wine at all.  Yet the practice is legal and the marketing apparatus will tout it as fine California wine.

Fess Parker

It occurs to me that I am old.  Most of you probably have never heard of the actor Fess Parker, or if you have, you have relegated him to the annuls of the bygone era in which he performed.  In other words, he was someone your grandparents remember.

Or maybe you've heard of Fess Parker Winery & Vineyard but never gave a thought to the historic figure whose name now lives on in this industry.

Fess Parker was huge in the entertainment culture of fifty years ago.  He starred in Disney pictures in the fifties and early sixties before becoming TV's Daniel Boone through most of that decade.  He was a larger than life Texan and a cinematic hero, at least for kids growing up at the time. 

Parker left acting in the early seventies, went into real estate and did well.  In 1988 he purchased the 714 acre Foxen Canyon Ranch in the Los Olivos District within the larger Santa Ynez Valley AVA in Santa Barbara County.  He began planting Riesling grapes in '89 and poured his first wines two years later.

Today Fess Parker Winery & Vineyards has 110 acres planted in Riesling, Syrah and Viognier.  They also market a Napa Cabernet and a Pinot Noir sourced from nearby Santa Rita Hills and Santa Maria Valley.  In total 75% of Parker wines are sourced from Santa Barbara County vineyards including Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that go into a sparkler.  One-third of Parker production over all is varietal Pinot Noir, 30% is Chardonnay, 20% is Syrah and 10% is Riesling.

And that brings us to the Fess Parker Riesling on our shelves right now.  We bought it initially three months ago and blew through it in no time.  It didn't hurt that we tasted it out here in the store.  Everyone loved it.  

Considering the lack of popularity for Riesling in general, we think the wine's reception was due to its inviting style.  It was different.  Its slightly off-dry style is prefaced with fresh friendly floral aromas leading into a bounty of fruity notes (with lychee nuts!).  We can't help but think some of their Viognier juice found its way into the blend.  And it doesn't hurt that its pricing is quite friendly too.

Northern France - Southern France

Menetou-Salon is a legally delimited wine appellation adjacent to Sancerre at the eastern end of the Loire Valley. The finest Sauvignon Blanc in the world is sourced from this general area of northern France.  By contrast, Gard is an IGP (indication geographique protegee), a vin de pays level wine region, one step above the most basic quality level.  It lies in the middle of southern France just above the Mediterranean Sea.  Both of our examples for this post entered our store this week and again, perhaps to generalize too much, it's the difference between north and south in France.

The finest wines of France begin just a quarter of the way up the map with Bordeaux at 44 degrees latitude.  With the exception of the fine types from the Rhone Valley, everything else plays a second quality fiddle in the south.  Yet most of the wine made in France comes from that ribbon across the south and most of it's not bad.

We weren't familiar with Menetou-Salon before this one came in the door.  Since it was from our best supplier we kept it even though we were told it would be a Sancerre.  After just a little research, that turned out to be a good move.  Menetou-Salon may be viewed today as a westward extension of Sancerre to meet world demand. 

Our Gard example is Domaine Mas Barrau Cabernet Franc.  Its label says it is a 100% varietal Cab from a single vineyard family-run estate.  It is certified organic.  While we have no reason to doubt the claims just stated, it is marketed by a huge international wine concern and as an IGP wine, much is left non-guaranteed.  It only has to be sourced from that region with legally defined harvest limits.   

By contrast, as an AOP (appellation d'origine protogee), our Menetou-Salon must adhere to the two conditions just listed plus historic wine making processes including blending rules and alcohol content.   

Interestingly, both regions share a connection with antiquity.  In all likelihood Gard viticulture was begun by 6th century Greeks planting grape varieties originally from Greece.  The Loire Valley has monastic vineyard documentation from the 14th century that alludes to 11th century development.

So why the profound difference in the appraisal of the north vis a vis the south?  It's no surprise - The north has cooler temperatures and in this case, Kimmeridgian soils, AND protectionist wine appellation laws that keep pricing optimal.  Consequently our Cabernet Franc ends up being half the price of the pedigreed Sauvignon Blanc.               

Dollar Bills Only

So here's what we were told - Patricia Green Cellars had a bad vintage in 2020 (smoke) and rolled all of their single vineyard pinots into one wine, labeling it "Dollar Bills Only."  While our information was generally correct, we can now flesh it out a bit.

Patricia Green was one of the giants in the Oregon pinot business.  She passed away in 2017 and Patricia Green Cellars is now in the hands of her business partner/winemaker, Jim Anderson.  While we have sold their wines in the past, we didn't know how large and rarefied their production was.  If you go to patriciagreencellars.com you will learn that they are the largest producer of bottles of Pinot Noir in the country.  You will also see more than a dozen single vineyard pinots advertised for up to $300/btl.  

Patty Green had a great reputation in this business, by the way.  Her wines were not manipulated to meet what the market expects.  She took what the vineyard gave her and didn't intervene to reconfigure the stuff.  If you look at the color of the wine in the glass it will be the correct garnet or cherry red color, not a darker hue betraying adulteration.

In order to make Dollar Bills Only, Patricia Green Cellars declassified pinot juice from five vineyards; Estate, Freedom Hill, Ridgecrest, Wind Ridge and Risdahl Ranch/Shafer.  We are inclined to think the remaining properties at her disposal were written off due to the smoke taint.  This limited pedigreed fruit was made into a "silky, layered, juicy and pure, ripe cherry and wild berry-flavored" finished product.  Tellingly, the wine's complex fruit and spice flavors build and improve in the glass ending in a long lasting finish.  My mentor would have approved.

Lumpy's is a dive bar in the town of Dundee in the Willamette Valley.  The juke box there has a sign on it saying, "Dollar Bills Only" and that image is reproduced on the wine label.  The significance is meant as a statement about making the best of a bad situation.

Wine Purchasing 101

We bought a couple cases of wine recently.  One was The Paring Red Blend which was included in a slew of samples our vendor poured for us.  Frankly, it was the best of the lot.  

Later that same day another vendor brought in his samples that we proceeded to taste through.  After purchasing some from that bunch, he verbally offered the Angels & Cowboys Red Blend from Sonoma.  He made it sound so good, we went ahead and bought a case.

The obvious difference between the two purchases was the ability to taste the wine in the first case and just getting the salesman's pitch in the second.  The backstory?  We've known the first vendor for just a couple months.  The other fellow we've known for decades.  That makes a difference.

The Paring is a Cabernet-driven Bordeaux blend from the Screaming Eagle people; Screaming Eagle, being the most expensive wine of California.  It has no prestigious appellation of origin other than California in general, but we tasted it and it was good.  

A field blend utilizes grapes like Zinfandel, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Grenache, Sangiovese, Carignan, and/or other blue collar types, in various combos that somehow comes out tasting pretty good.  Angels & Cowboys is that kind of wine.  Right up my blue collar alley.

So The Paring has provenance; it has the Screaming Eagle connection and it's Cabernet, the most reliably fine red grape in the marketplace.  Angels & Cowboys, by contrast, has Sonoma-legs but little else to recommend it.  And I bought it without even tasting it!  

Yet I will recommend both to you all.  If you like the Screaming Eagle Cabernet provenance, get The Parings.  If you have a history with me here then lets talk.  Angels & Cowboys isn't for everyone.  But it might be perfect for your needs.

Gascogne Blanc

The Gascogne region south of Bordeaux is overwhelmingly agricultural with both an oceanic influence and hot dry summers that are perfect for growing wine grapes.  In the past when we've posted about Gascogne we got intrigued by the neat geology of the region and went off on that tangent.  Since wine industries everywhere cling to river valleys, that's where we'll start this one.  Gascogne is segmented by several rivers and since our highly successful Domaine Pajot white blend and the similarly hoped-for success of the soon to arrive Domaine de Ballade Blanc are what prompted this post, the river we're talking about now is the Gers.

The Gers River flows north from the Pyranees Mountains through the Armagnac region ultimately emptying into the Garonne River and then into Bordeaux.  The region around the local Armagnac capitol city of Eauze is called the commune of Gers.  It is there that both whites mentioned above have their vineyards.

The native grape of the region is Colombard with the secondary grape being Ugni Blanc.  Historically both grapes have had an acidic character with more or less neutral flavors which make them great for distilling into brandy.

Wait a minute.  Acidic wine with neutral flavors?  So why are the white wines of the region so pleasant?

Although we haven't seen it written anywhere, we suspect technological improvements in winemaking make these grapes desirable now.  Whatever else can be coaxed out of Colombard and Ugni Blanc, they bring structure and acidity to a blend.

The third historic white grape of the region is Gros-Manseng, another lesser type.  The fourth white grape of the region is an import, the fine Sauvignon Blanc of Bordeaux to the north.  Now with Sauvignon Blanc as its calling card, the white blend becomes clear.  Sauvignon Blanc offers both elegance and prestige to the blend.  Colombard gives the blend citric and tropical fruit flavors.  Ugni Blanc is floral and Gros Manseng brings a soft round body with quince and apricot flavors.  And this is key - Leaving the wine on the lees for months as these winemakers do, brings out the latent flavors of the lesser grapes.

The finished product is a light-bodied white suitable for seafood, salads and summer afternoons.

Bastide Miraflors

We've had this one on our shelves for the better part of a year.  Doesn't sell worth a hoot.  What's the problem?  It must be the packaging because it sure isn't what's in the bottle.  

Bastide Miraflors (BM?) is a blend of 75% Syrah with 25% Grenache sourced from fifty-five year old organically farmed vines in a region historically known for that fine blend.  That region, Cotes du Roussillon, is the southernmost part of France adjacent to the Spanish border with flatland vineyards closer to the Mediterranean Sea and higher altitude vineyards nearer to the Pyranees Mountains.  Bastide utilizes soils of granite, schist and alluvial gravel at altitudes ranging from 35 meters to 150 meters.

Bastide is made by the very modern winery of Domaine Lafage of Peripignan.  It is an Indication Geographique Protegee (IGP) level wine, not rising to appellation status (AOP) but not vin d'table either.  The IGP Cotes Catalanes, as it is called, is the same geographical region as used in the earlier term, Pyranese-Orientales.  That region is hot and dry with poor soils and garrigue covered hills that force vine taproots deep into the earth for sustenance.  The resultant wines are known for their concentrated flavors.  All of the governmental wine legalese, by the way, is courtesy of the European Union in 2009 when they replaced the previous legal mumbo-jumbo in place since 1968.

What makes this wine so good?  

Three things: 

The grapes are hand harvested.  That means quality control.  Harvesting machines don't descriminate.  Hands do.  

The grapes receive a total of six weeks in maceration before three quarters of the young wine sees a year in concrete.  The remainder is put in oak.  That's winemaking.

Remember the garrigue mentioned earlier?  We've written about it before.  It is low lying vegetation that exudes a heady complex herbaceousness.  Think - Herbs de Provence.  Lavendar and mint.  Winemakers in southern France believe that airborne herbaceousness becomes part of a wine's flavor profile.  Want more?  It is further believed that garrigue soils can transmit that same herbaceousness to vine roots for a furtherance of the same phenomena.  Hmmm.  

Bernardus

 ...to create wines that "flatter the palate and stimulate the imagination."  So says the mission statement of Bernardus Winery of Monterey County.  We like it.  What more could you ask for?

We've known Bernardus since the early 1980's.  Back then we were taken by their white wines.  Both the Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc had a sweet spiciness that made them ideal as cocktail wines.  The wines weren't actually sweet, at least no more than most from California; they just had maybe a nutmeg-like flavor that your mind associates with sweeter holiday fare.  Maybe it's that quality that made you not want to mess these up by having them with a meal.

Whatever reds Bernardus marketed must not have impressed us back then or else those thoroughly enjoyable whites just overshadowed them.  In the last twenty years though, it's the Bernardus reds that have come to the fore with the critics.  We have sold them successfully for the past twenty years, including their luxury label, Marinus Estate Blend.

At their website Bernardus markets ten wines, four whites and six reds.  A rose is pictured there but is apparently unavailable.  During the holiday season we sold their Monterey Chardonnay, Griva Vineyard Monterey Sauvignon Blanc and Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir.  We wholeheartedly recommended them all; the whites based on our history with them and the red, because of the critical acclaim.  

The Marinus Vineyard is a thirty-six acre hillside expanse over the Carmel Valley.  It was established in 1990 at an elevation of 1,200 feet in soils of sand and clay.  Twenty-five acres are planted in Cabernet Sauvignon, nine in Merlot, and one each in Cabernet Franc and Malbec.  The goal here is obviously to make Bordeaux in California.  We will be stocking Marinus shortly.

So here's the Bernardus backstory: Bernardus Marinus Pons came to Carmel Valley from the Netherlands in the late 1970's.  After purchasing what he thought would be a second home there, he became quite taken with the area and foresaw a Bordeaux-like wine industry for the region.  His wealth came from his father who designed the Volkswagen Microbus and imported the first Beetles into this country.  Relatedly, Pons' hobbies at the time included racing Porsches and skeet shooting, which he excelled at enough to be competitive in the 1972 Olympics.

Pons now owns only half of his winemaking operation with other Dutch interests buying in for the other half. His twenty-five year old winemaking team is led by chief wine maker Dean Dekorth who hails from Burgundy, France.