This post won’t be one of my long narrative spiels but rather a placemarker for a few wines I feel I should record for perpetuity.  The first I purchased for the occasion of James’s (of The Eaten Path fame) visit to DC: the 2006 Mas de Daumas Gassac from the Languedoc ($49.99).  This wine is billed as “The Grand Cru of the Languedoc” and contains merlot, cabernet franc, tannat and pinot noir, as well as a collection of Italian grapes (nebbiolo, barbera and dolcetto), chardonnay, viognier, chenin blanc, petit manseng, marsanne, roussanne, sercial, muscat and more.  It’s a crazy wine, and I was aching to try it.

I decanted it for about half an hour and eagerly took a sip.  Honestly, I would like to say that the wine was stellar–given the price–but I don’t know if I’d pay $49.99 for the bottle again.  Granted, it was very young–the label said it could age for 7-25 years!–but I was expecting a bit more oomph.  The nose was bigger than the, er, bite, smelling of huge dark fruit and berries.  It was a pale color and a bit thin, though it had good acidity and roundness.  I feel compelled to buy another bottle to keep around for a few years.

There was a superb Nero d’Avola, the 2006 Morgante ($16.99).  This was well-balanced with great acidity that matched perfectly with roasted vegetable and goat cheese pizza.  It was a wine that, though not the most complex, was incredibly pleasing.  It might be the best Nero d’Avola I’ve ever had, and might even be a better Italian food wine than my beloved Casanova di Neri Rosso di Montalcino: it’s cheaper by about $10, too.

Lastly, a few nights ago Ian was kind enough to bring over a solid, affordable California cab: the 2006 Cannonball cabernet, made from grapes sourced from three different vineyards in the Bear Flag State.

It was full of fruit, moderate tannins, and subtle vanilla.  It’s an easy-drinking wine, unpretentious, and would be great for casual evenings with friends.  A steal at $11.99!

With that: farewell till the next time I’m free to write!

For one, I’m living in a nice, comfortable apartment with great food.  I have a wonderful family that I appreciate more as I get older; great friends.  I am going to a good law school with outstanding professors and classes.  I have nothing to complain about, and I am going to try to be more appreciative of the incredible opportunities I’ve been given.

To kick off the new year, my roommate and I hosted a champagne and sparkling wine tasting, the details of which will be coming out in the upcoming Nota Bene (GW Law student newspaper); I will write up my blog observations on that evening a bit later.  Suffice it to say that the big winner in the tasting were a beautiful sparkler from France, the Charles de Fere Blanc de Blanc Reserve Brut ($12.99)–was, as I described it, “the group’s favorite, with a nose of hazelnut and toast, a light, almost ethereal mouthfeel, and notes of apple and pear.”

But I have to lay rest some unfinished deeds from the previous year, too.  I went to Mission Wines five times over break (1.33 times per week I was at home), during which I merely stopped by twice for bottles, attended a weekend tasting with some LegalZoom friends, drank some excellent wines with my high school friends, and visited with my roommate from DC, Alex.  Managed to catch up with people like Dave, Debbie, and Kirk; from high school, saw Billy–whom I haven’t seen for two years–Brian R.–who moved to Japan after Berkeley and had not been seen this side of the Pacific for quite a few years–Brian H.–UCLA film student extraordinaire–and Jen–soon to be lawyer extraordinaire.

Some notable wines were a 2005 Caymus Cabernet (approx. $70-$80), courtesy of Billy (whoa!)–intense, really really BIG–Robert Parker big–California big; vanilla and tobacco and earth throwing off crazy fireworks in the mouth.  Kirk let me try some of some fantastic zinfandel, and on another day Dave was kind enough to pour for us a bottle of the same, a 2006 Hartford Family Winery Zinfandel from the Russian River Valley (approx. $30)–spicy and full, one of the best zins I’ve ever had.

Alex and I shared a bottle of Casanova di Neri Rosso di Montalcino (approx. $25), from the Southern Tuscany–90% sangiovese and 10% colorino, pronounced acidity that wasn’t overbearing and actually well-balanced, cherry, a bit of spice.  An excellent food wine but also nice by itself, slightly chilled.  I managed to find and buy a bottle of this in DC at the Wine Specialist and got a $5 discount ($24 instead of $29) and am looking forward to drinking it with a nice meal.

And finally, a really wonderful wine from the Languedoc: the 2006 “Les Garrigues” from Domaine Clavel (approx. $12-$14)–everything you would ever want from a wine from the South of France: definitely a cold weather wine, with medium body, dark fruits, nice tannins, and a taste of–you guessed it–the garrigue.

All in all, I had some wonderful wines.  Oh, and before I forget, another wine I had here in DC at the end of the champagne tasting: the 2006 Domaine Joulin Saumur Champigny Rouge ($17.99).  A cabernet franc, it definitely was better than the “Cuvee de la Cure” from Charles Joguet (importer: Kermit Lynch) ($26), I felt–very smooth, very light.  It smelled like gamay and tasted a bit like strawberries, but there was a streak of minerality that separated it from a beaujolais.  Excellent, and a crowd-pleaser.

The wines I had at the end of last year and the start of this year have been very, very good indeed, and more importantly, I was able to share those wines with friends and family.  I have much to be thankful for and much to look forward to in 2009.

Jonathan L., my erstwhile LegalZoom co-worker, poet, historian, and future Columbia grad student, was in the neighborhood. We’re both fond of wine, so we decided to have a bit to drink together before we again went our separate ways.

Where else than Lou?

Now keep in mind that we’re both going to be grad students in the near future; not only that, we’re both going to be living in rather expensive metropolitan areas. Personally, I had enough money that day for wine tasting or dinner but not both. Oh well. I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.

We met up at Lou at around 7 pm. The place was dead. There were, including us, seven patrons at that time. No matter. We had a job to do.

He had the 1989 Domaine Brunet chenin blanc I wrote about in a previous post. Then he moved on to the 2006 Coturri “Albarello”, which was a field blend of a number of different old vines. I had a nice, light verdejo from the Rueda region of Spain: the 2006 Garcia-Arevalo “Tres Olmo”. Then, I sampled the 2005 Giusti Lacrima di Morro and finished off with the 2004 Puiatti cabernet franc.

As for food, we got Lou’s “fish plate”, which consisted of smoked baccala, albacore confit, smoked trout, and house-cured wild salmon gravlax. It was tasty and a pretty good foil for the wines (the fish wasn’t too fishy… it was savory, salty, and good).

Jon’s Albarello was good (ha, simple enough, right?). He insisted that the taste of the wine changed in his mouth to reflect potentially the 11 different grapes in the blend. Some post-quaffing online research on the Coturri Winery website yielded the definition of both “Albarello” and “field blend”:

Albarello is Italian for low or head pruned vines. This wine is made from a “field blend” vineyard in the southeast corner of Sonoma Valley. A field blend is a vineyard that has a number of different varietals planted at random. The idea being the wine was blended in the vineyard rather than in the winery.

What an interesting concept! The Albarello field blend consisted of nine grapes, six reds and three whites. I didn’t get too good a taste of the wine, but from what I did taste it did seem like a pleasant, well-integrated wine.

My verdejo was crisp, dry, and refreshing. It wasn’t terrible complex, but then again, verdejos aren’t supposed to be terribly complex. Nonetheless, the Tres Olmo was delicious, well-built, with bracing acidity and clean minerality. Notes of citrus. Good.

The cabernet franc was served chilled, just like beaujolais. It was very light-bodied, with a low tannin-to-high acidity ration. The nose yielded cherry, and the taste yielded berries. This cabernet franc may just give beaujolais a run for its money in my book!

I wanted to focus a bit on the Lacrima di Morro. I mean, how cool is that name? Tears of Morro (Morro being the commune of Morro d’Alba in the Italian province of Ancona, which is on the Adriatic coast).

Lacrima di Morro is a wine whose grape (Lacrima di Morro d’Alba) is of an ancient and confusing origin–so ancient and so confusing, in fact, that its precise genealogy may never be determined.

This wine blew me away because it was like no other wine I’ve ever tasted. Sure, there are other wines whose nose may approximate flowers, but the Lacrima di Morro actually SMELLS like violets. It’s unmistakable. It’s incredible. And when you take a sip, those violets morph on your tongue into petals of rose. The aftertaste is evocative of rosewater–Turkish Delights, anyone? Light body, low-to-medium tannins, and medium acidity make for a playful, idiosyncratic wine.

I was about to write it’s a nice wine for a date, but on second thought it’s not. Despite all the flowers and mention of Turkish Delight the Lacrima di Morro does not strike me as a sweet wine, though it is not dry. There is a bit of funk below the waving blossoms, as if the winemakers had deliberately left some dirt and leaves on the petals when stuffing them into the bottle. =)

Now, what did Jon and I do about dinner? After tax/tip, we paid about $27-$30 each (keep in mind the glasses were not full glasses but two-three ounce tastes). I had like ten bucks in my pocket at that point.

We went to Flaming Patty’s, a hole-in-the-wall burger joint right next door, where he got a banana shake and a grilled cheese sandwich and I got a Coke and chili cheese fries. My bill? $7.00, after tax/tip. Not exactly as high-quality as 20-year-old chenin blanc and house-cured wild salmon gravlax, but hey, grad students are grad students, right? Thank God I wasn’t on a date.

Luckily, no one coming out of Lou spotted us sitting in our booth at Flaming Patty’s!

I took a few days off of work just to chill out and get my second wind, so to speak, before heading off to law school in July.  Thursday and Friday were spent with the family doing nothing in particular, so Saturday afternoon was ripe for something fun: Mission Wines with the co-workers was in order.

The official lineup for the day was:

 
The first, the 2006 Josef Leitz Drachenstein (Dragonstone) riesling was billed as a delicious, decently-priced riesling from the Rheingau region of Germany.  The Rheingau isn’t as famous as the Mosel, but it is home to the highest proportion of riesling vines in Germany.  It was a full, fat riesling, with lower but still substantial acidity and a fair bit of sweetness.  Overall, a fair-drinking riesling that, around $12-$15, is a safe bet for summer fare, Thai, or lovin’.

I was really looking forward to the 1996 R. Lopez de Heredia Vina Gravonia, which is a traditional-style white rioja made of 100% viura. 

Viura is a Spanish grape that apparently has a nose of flowers and the taste of green apples and nuts.  It also is best consumed young in most cases, as the grape is supposed to lose its nose and taste rather easily.  This fact makes the Vina Gravonia that much more unusual: it is deliberately stored by the winemaker for years until it is “ready”.  This prolonged aging in oak barrels sets Lopez de Heredia apart from many other Spanish wineries and, in fact, from many other winemakers period.

Unfortunately, I could not taste the magic of this wine.  The nose, indeed, was like a bouquet, and the taste was tart, with heavy hints of green apple.  However, there also seemed an acetic taste of banana, and a bit too much oak.  A bit too much acidity.  In fact, I likened the end taste to licking a AA battery (you’ve never done that?  My friend, you’ve never lived!) Overall, it was a disappointment, despite its renowned pedigree.

I think that the Vina Gravonia destroyed my taste buds and ruined the next two wines–they had a really bitter aftertaste that I would never expect to find in a Bordeaux or any red wine, for instance.

The last wine on the official tasting list was the 2005 Ridge Lytton Springs zinfandel, which is composed to 77% zin, 17% petite syrah, and 6% carignane.  It was strong enough to withstand the devastation of the Vina Gravonia, with firm tannins and nice structure.  Berries and cherry, maybe some licorice.  Jonathan detected a hint of menthol on the nose, which I sensed as well.  I was very pleased with this wine: it lived up to its prominent name.

Then, true to fashion, Dave poured two bonus tastes: the 2006 Cavallotto Dolcetto d’Alba from the Piedmont in Italy, and the 2006 Anthill Farm “Peters Vineyard” pinot noir.  The Dolcetto was very nice–smooth, a bit tannic.  Nice blueberry, a bit gamey–it threw a fair amount of sediment in my glass (though mine was the last glass poured).  The Anthill Farm was very, very light: almost clear, with the classic taste of cherry.  Very focused for such a clear-looking wine!

After the tastings, we had two bottles of wine on our own: the 2005 Ch. W. Bernhard Hackenheimer Kirchberg Scheurebe Spätlese and the 2005 Pago Florentino Tinto. 

The first was an utterly entrancing riesling from the Rheinhessen region of Germany.  Peaches, nectar–a gorgeous honeyed texture evocative of waves of silk.  Autumnal, evocative of the first golden falling leaves and the cold.  At around $22-$25, an excellent value for the pure hedonism of the wine.

The Pago Florentino, from the La Mancha appellation of Spain, is made of 100% tinto fino (tempranillo).  Overall, inky, with pronounced tannins.  Classic tempranillo–good price for a good example of this varietal for around $20.

We weren’t done, though.  We shared two 750 mL bottles of beer: the Delirium Tremens, which is a Belgian strong pale ale produced by Huyghe Brewery in Belgium.  It clocks in at a pretty strong 8.5% ABV.  It was a clear, golden color, light and pleasant.  It was like Hoegaarden but hoppier.

It was pleasant, but no match for Unibroue’s La Terrible (profiled two posts ago): this dark, 10.5% ABV monster destroyed any lingering bitterness from the wines and also destroyed the rest of my sobriety.  Delicious, delicious, and almost the last beer save a comped taste of Craftsman Brewery’s Biere de Mars (Beer of March).  Mission Wines has three of Craftsman’s beers on rotation at the bar.  I’ve previously had quite a few of their beers, including the memorable Cabernale from the holiday season.

The Biere de Mars was good–interesting, and good.  Strong licorice taste, hoppy.  Medium color, and high level of acidity.  Very refreshing. 

Now I leave you with some pictures of my coworkers and I: I’m the Asian guy in the blue “whale” shirt.  Enjoy!

Manning (Peyton? Eli? Archie or Cooper?) or, if you will, womanning the bar was Debbie, a delightful woman who crossed over years back from Colorado to pursue a love of wine. Heck, I would drive hundreds of miles for wine. In fact, that’s the primary reason I head up to Berkeley so often (sorry Jonathan!). She served us the five wines on the menu, as well as two more “bonus” pours.

The wines were:

J. Hofstatter “De Vite” Pinot Grigio | Alto Adige, Italy | 2005 | $11.99
We took turns writing tasting notes. My notes for this wine were “uber-light.” Kat’s notes were a star surrounded by a circle, along with the word “unfabulous”, which I’m not even sure is a word (thanks, spell check!). This pinot grigio was too light, too insubstantial. It was citrusy, which isn’t a bad thing, but to my palate at least it also seemed to have that plasticine taste I abhor in whites. As Mark Oldman notes in his Guide to Outsmarting Wine, much pinot grigio is “often like experiencing an IKEA rug, Ben Stein’s voice, or a dose of Paxil: neutral, monotone, and devoid of highs.” And watery. The region of Alto Adige is apparently home to some more “interesting versions” of pinot grigio, but this particular bottle was not one of them.

Heidi Schrock “White Blend” Muscat | Rust, Austria | 2006 | $26.99
A much better wine than the first. Exhibited a huge, sweet bouquet like honey or roses that gave way to an extremely dry, austere wine in the mouth. Like smelling a rose then, maybe in a fit of passion, eating a petal. Katherine gave this wine five stars.

(Note about Kat’s ranking system: she only gives either one star or five. So she really likes a wine or really hates it. Much like how most people judge her. Kidding again!)

Elizabeth Spencer “Special Cuvee” Pinot Noir | Sonoma Coast, California | 2006 | $32.99
You know–I’m not really a big fan of pinot noir. I know, I know–who am I to argue with Miles from Sideways, right? The best pinot noirs I’ve had were very different in price. I tried the heralded Sea Smoke Southing pinot noir from the Santa Rita Hills of California–oh God. It was probably the best wine I’ve ever had in my life. That one two-ounce taste set me back like $8.00, I think, but it was worth it. The MacMurray pinot noir from the Russian River Valley, which is around $17 – $20, is a great, easy, and affordable pinot noir.

Usually, though, pinot noirs seem too… light for me. I like wines (and women) with a bit of heft. I also like wines (and women) that stain your teeth. (The implications here frighten me… forget I ever wrote that.) The Elizabeth Spencer pinot was… like heaven if it were on the California coast line. Plum, prune, earth, balanced so delicately and with such trembling fragility. A poem in a glass, if ever there was one. And an expensive poem, at that.

Kat gave this one five stars. She didn’t write anymore notes after this one.

Seghesio Zinfandel | Sonoma County, California | 2006 | $17.99
Jammy. Pretty decent. Good with chocolate. Nothing really to write home about, though.

Atalays de Golban Tempranillo | Ribera del Duero, Spain | 2005 | $23.99
A moderately full, tannic wine that to me reflects the dry river Duero in Spain. Pretty good, though you have a comparable tempranillo in the Conde de Valdemar Rioja reserva for less money (around $17.00). For a great Ribera del Duero, though, go for the Tinto Pesquera crianza: so complex, with loads of flavor and spice (around $35.00).

I pointed out to Debbie that all the Ribera del Duero labels have structures… like towers, or castles, or other man-made edifices. At this point, though, I was pretty buzzed so I could not for the life of me remember the name “Tinto Pesquera.” She nodded at me and smiled, just as many people seem to do with me.

Bonus Wines
The first was a barbaresco from the Produttori del Barbaresco collective in Piedmont, Italy. Made from nebbiolo, this was very, very light–lighter than the Elizabeth Spencer pinot noir–but substantial nonetheless. I got the taste of raisin, licorice, red… stuff. Light but not fragile. Kind of… another incarnation of what the pinot noir might have been, perhaps?

The second was some wine made by some customer of Mission Wines! He bought the grapes himself and made them into a wine that was powerful, extremely spicy–peppery, even–and tannic as heck. No one knew what kind of grapes he used as he himself was not there at the moment. But it was cool to be able to sample a wine from someone who presumably lives in South Pasadena or a neighboring city.

WINE PICK OF THE WEEK
Probably pretty obvious, but the Elizabeth Spencer was the clear winner for me. The next time I have $32.99 + tax lying around, I will head over the Mission Wines and buy a bottle. It won’t be soon.