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.