2006 Yangarra Estate Vineyard McLaren Vale Single Vineyard Chardonnay

This month’s CLG Wine Club primary white selection is the ‘06 Yangarra Estate, McLaren Vale Single Vineyard Chardonnay – a wine we’d had before but chose it based on our memory and some other external factors.  Tonight we planned a dinner of chicken in olive oil with a slight spiced seasoning, so I figured we’d crack a bottle of the Yangarra Chard.  Wow!  What a great re-visit!

The Yangarra Estate ( http://www.yangarra.com/ ) property, located in South Australia, is 420 acres, of which 250 acres are planted to vineyard.  Although South Australia is located in the middle, along the southern coast, of Australia, the majority of wine regions face west with the ocean imparting its influence.  The winery was founded in 2000, although most of the vineyards were planted in the late 1940’s.  This Chardonnay was fermented in stainless steel and saw no malolactic fermentation (the process which converts malic acid – that crisp apple like acidity – to lactic acid – the smooth acid found in milk which smooths the texture).  It was aged 4 months sur-lie (on the dead yeast cells) which further adds a creamy body/texture and structure.  This vision leads to a wine true to fruit character retaining crispness.

So what did we think?  Well, I blinded Loreen when she arrived home… her first smells were mineral, stone and salty… somewhat Chablis like in her mind.  In tasting she got a ton of lime, acid and the sensation of licking a stone (remember when you were a kid and you’d lick a stone on the beach to wet it and make the colors stand out?).  Continued smelling & tasting shows the creamy result of malolactic fermentation and sur-lie ageing.  I got some pear and lime and other stone fruit on the palate.  The crisp acid showed very well and paired well with our spiced (not hot spice… just a blend of flake salt, black pepper, orange peel and coriander) chicken.  I think Loreen was right on to compare it to Burgundy… with it’s mineral notes and crispness.  We are still (as I type) really enjoying it… and it’s changing in the glass!

One of the things that you should accept as a lead down the road to deciding the quality of a wine is how much you have to say about it… if upon tasting a wine you are able to name three or four “flavors” and identify some sensations – and comparisons to things you know – these are all signs!  Relish in this… it means the wine you’re drinking is probably pretty damn good.  This is one of those wines.  This wine, although CLG priced at $17.99, easily drinks in the $22.00+ range.  Loreen and I agree… 90-91 points.  If you get a chance, give the Yangarra Chard a try.

Thanks for visiting… drop a comment and come back often!

Regards,

Ron

Siduri Wines

Last November we had the wonderful opportunity to meet several people while attending Pinot Days in Chicago – one of whom was Adam Lee of Siduri Wines.  Since then we have brought some Siduri and Novy (their Syrah label) into Cafe le Grand and have been spreading the word about these great wines.  Today we had the absolute pleasure of meeting Adam & Dianna Lee at Siduri Wines in Santa Rosa.  Adam took a couple hours to show us around, share their story and thoughts on winemaking and wine drinking – and pour us several glasses from tank and barrel.

Ron & Loreen with Adam Lee of Siduri

( Adam asked that I explain his attire… see, we were his only tour today and he was headed to a Jimmy Buffet concert… apparently Jimmy Buffet is a huge wine guy and quite the fan of Siduri… so Adam was headed backstage to hang out with the band!)

Adam & Dianna’s story ( which is written about in detail on their very complete website  http://www.siduri.com/index.html ) starts in Texas, where they met at Neiman-Marcus.  Adam was the wine buyer while Dianna worked in the gourmet foods department.  Following a dream, they headed to California and in 1994 they launched Siduri wines.  Since this time they have specialized in vineyard designate Pinot Noir and Syrah (being bottled under the Novy label… named for Dianna’s maiden name).  They source grapes from specific sites from Oregon to the California Central Coast – seeking the true expression of the place… and doing a damn good job!  Some of their smaller projects include a dessert wine, a Nebbiolo and a Viognier.

Adam Lee pulling barrel samples

In tasting through all of the tank & barrel samples and hearing Adam’s passion was nearly the same message in a different medium.  Each wine was clearly a word, sentence or paragraph in liquid form.  We found the final blended wines to be very complete and very expressive, while the various blocks and clones were obviously a part of something bigger – something to be determined when the time is right – just a part or chapter from the complete story.  All in all it was an impressive display of what Adam thinks when putting together his wines.  The single vineyard wines, which are really the heart of their program were like great single works – expressive, complete on their own and specific to their intent.

Adam in the barrel room

Adam is not alone in this venture.  In addition to Dianna, he’s got the obvious invaluable and dedicated assistance of assistant winemaker Ryan Zepaltas, who we also had the pleasure of meeting.  In addition to helping out at Siduri, Ryan is also doing his own thing under the Zepaltas label (http://zepaltaswines.com/).  The other very cool thing about meeting Ryan is that he is from Eau Claire, WI.  Having this commonality (me having gone to UWEC) we chatted about WI and our favorite watering holes on Water Street.

Ryan Zepaltas supervising filtering of a special dessert wine

 I think it’s pretty clear that we had a great time tasting and talking with Adam and our thanks go out to their hospitality.  We strongly encourage you to seek out these wines – and we’d be more than willing to bring in anything from Siduri/Novy that you’d be interested in buying.

Thanks for checking out our blog and we look forward to seeing you at CLG – where we’re changing the way you look at wine!

Regards,

Ron

Question: Should I Review Wine?

Greetings CLG BLOG Peeps!

I’ve been kicking around what to fill these pages with… and occasionally I think that perhaps I should do more reviews.  I don’t particularly think my opinion should matter any more than anyone else’s, but I must admit, I drink a ton of wine… so jotting down some notes may not hurt.

So, I put it to the few of you who actually spend some time reading this drivel… should I review wines?  If so, what would you like to see…?  Just the written (typed really) words of a self professed cork dork, or perhaps a video review so you can enjoy my mug sipping and slurping through random wines?

Thanks for your time and see you soon!

In the meantime… keep thinking and drinking!

Regards,

Ron

Ken Wright Pinot Noir

I’m absolutely psyched to write this… I’ve been thinking about it for two or three weeks – since last drinking a bottle of Ken Wright with Loreen and Tim.  I was thinking then that I needed to carve a post hailing KW and all his vineyard designate Pinot… well, tonight is the night.  And for inspiration I have opend the 2003 Ken Wright Carter Vineyard Pinot Noir.  So sit back, open your own vino and read on… it’s gonna get long… maybe open two bottles!

Loreen and I were introduced to Ken Wright in the fall of 2004 – about 11 months after taking over at Cafe le Grand.  At that time we were both pretty new to the wine “industry” and I knew almost nothing – including how obsessed I would become.  We were visiting relatives in Washington who are pretty heavy into wine and really into Ken Wright and other Oregon Pinot (Domaine Serene, Domaine Drouhin, etc.).  It was Thanksgiving and they had invites to the annual Thanksgiving Day (week) tasting event at Ken Wright.  So we took off one morning and headed south toward Oregon wine country, specifically Carlton, OR.

Ken Wright ( http://www.kenwrightcellars.com/ ) started making wine over 20 years ago – learning as we all do – the intricacies that make us better at our jobs.  He founded Panther Creek Winery in 1986 and made wine there until 1994.  In 1993 Panther Creek was sold and Ken founded Ken Wright Cellars – producing his first vintage in 1994.  During the early years he relied on purchasing fruit for his wine.  A practice that he determined wasn’t good enough for him and for his vision of what he wanted from his wine.  He felt that controlling the life of the vine - by managing yields, harvesting properly, maximising the specifics of a sight – was the only way to accomplish what he wanted.   So he made history.  In 1988 he was one of the first people to introduce long term land leasing – giving him control of all those things he deemed so important.  This proved to be well worth the extra expense!

Along with acreage contracts Ken Wright also implemented some practices that have become standard in the wine industry includiung green harvesting earlier, hand sorting on a sorting table, and cold soaking grapes (maceration).

Hand in hand with long term leasing is, of course, choosing the right land to lease!  This is where Ken Wright really goes to town – vineyard designate Pinot all around… nothing else… ever (except his two whites…).  He’s got (as best as I can figure) fourteen different vineyard bottlings… 14!  His philosophy is that each site is different – you must pay attention to the details and learn what will help the site produce the best possible fruit.  It’s summed up in a phrase on the Ken Wright Cellars website: Taste the Place.

Upon arriving at Ken Wright Cellars we found ourselves just off the main drag in Carlton, a very quaint little OR town – the building wasn’t what I envisioned (at the time) as a winery (have you seen the Lampoc Wine Ghetto?).  Inside the massive building adjacent to the blacktop parking lot were barrels and barrels and barrels!  We started sipping some whites and moved to reds.  We wandered and listened and I started to feel the tug… it was really cool.

We ended up chatting with some of the employees and indulging in our first every barrel tasting and meeting and talking to Ken Wright himself!  This will always stick with me as my first ever true winery experience – it was the whole deal – wine, barrels and the winemaker/owner!  Looking back at it I think it was tough for me to enjoy it like I should have – or like I would even now (after visiting many wineries).  It was overwhelming without me even knowing it… but what an experience!

I realize you may be wondering “Is the wine all that great?”  Have you been listening?  It’s everything that I have come to adore in Pinot Noir.  It’s a complex aroma, with layers and layers of spice, tobacco, dark fruit and sweet earth.  Smelling it is worth the price of admission… and tasting it, slowly and softly, is revealing of the fruit and the spice and all the layers of the nose.

The 2003 Carter holds a special place – it’s the one Loreen and I both loved out of the barrel (although I think Loreen enjoyed the guy pouring the wine too!), and it’s the one we’ve had the most often.  So that’s what I reached for tonight…

And speaking of reaching for wine to drink – if you’re a Pinot fan I highly recommend picking up any of the Ken Wright Cellars Pinot Noirs.  They are absolutely the essence of Oregon Pinot and the essence of Oregon Terroir.  If you’ve visited the CLG blog before you know I don’t “rate” wines via numerical score – I just don’t think I’m “all that” and figure a description and written praise means far more than a number.  Besides, you shouldn’t take a number for granted, instead you should drink, think and make up your own mind.  Trust your palate and develop it for and on  your own.  Don’t let someone else tell you you’ll like it… find out for yourself.  But if you’re so inclined to wonder what it’s scored in the wine publications – Wine Specatator rated the 2003 Carter 90 points – there were only 800 cases made and it’s supposed to be best after 2007.  As for the other Ken Wright Pinot - they are almost all 90 or above – regardless of vintage or vineyard.

I have just a sip or two left in my glass… and a decanter (less one glass) waiting for my return!

Thanks for visiting and remember, keep drinking and thinking!

Regards,

Ron

 

G. Gauthier – 2003 Los Carneros Pinot Noir

If you have been around Cafe le Grand much, you’re likely aware that Loreen and I have been at the helm for about 4 1/2 years – growing our wine selection from about 8 wines in January of 2004 to about 550 today.  During the early days of CLG (and to this day) we were not only growing our inventory, we were growing our palates.  So, as I sit sipping the G. Gauthier 2003 Los Carneros Pinot Noir I can’t help but think about how both have grown.  We came to open this bottle today as we have slipped away for a few days of alone time and brought a varied selection – in fact, I was going to make this entry Eight Wines in Four Days, but didn’t want to disappoint you if we didn’t actually open all of them!

This Pinot comes from G-Squared Cellars, named such for Greg Gauthier who is heavily involved with Bouchaine Vineyards as wine production advisor and VP of sales and marketing.  Greg’s history is pretty interesting, but I won’t regurgitate it here… instead, check out http://www.bouchaine.com/index.html as well as http://www.gauthiercellars.com/default.htm where you can read all sorts about him, the wineries and current wines.

When we first tasted this wine it showed bright fruit and that zesty/zippy character Loreen has dubbed “frittzy.”  We really enjoyed the fruity, sweet-like (no residual sugar) sensations.  It was, like our palate, pretty young.  The note on the back of the bottle suggests that Greg sought the Carneros fruit to demonstrate the perfume, flavors and texture – revealing a bouquet of cherry blossoms with hints of rosemary and allspice.  He refers to flavors of smoked cherries, raspberries and strawberries, with hints of tangerine and toffee.  It was the hit around the house for a while.

Today this wine is a different wine than when first tasted.  First, the color… originally a bright, medium intensity, red/ruby it has retained those hues better than I would have expected.  Pinot is one of those varietals that will change color sooner/younger than others - often quickly going garnet to near tawny. On the palate it still retains some of the raspberry/strawberry notes, however, it has matured and become darker in the fruit spectrum – perhaps a bit of dried fruit.  And gone is the frittzy young Pinot zip – replaced by a well integrated, mouth watering medium acidic, coffee-cigar-fruit-spice profile that really demonstrates what a few years in bottle will do to a wine.

Although I still enjoy the young Pinot taste, I am pleased that my palate and this wine have matured/evolved.  I highly recommend hitting this wine – whether as a re-visit or as a first timer.  It’s a great example of Carneros Pinot and is holding strong.  Check it out in the Pinot section at CLG!

Thanks for reading… keep drinking and thinking!

Ron

 

2001 Parker Coonawarra Estate

I’m not going to go too crazy, but I’m sippin’ a wine that’s been opening (improving and changing) for about 3 1/2 hours and I’ve got to tell somebody about it… the 2001 Parker Coonawarra Estate Terra Rossa First Growth.

Loreen and I had not been able to taste this wine - having brought it in on a suggestion and following a bit of reading – so tonight, being a Holiday week and all, we decided to open a nice bottle and see about this Australian First Growth.  I have to say, I think it’s a bit pretentious to name your wine First Growth – that’s a designation given to some of the (generally speaking) historically best, most expensive, longest lived, highest rated and most sought after wine in the world.  So going in I was a bit suspicious, which is my nature.

As I said above… it’s been open for 3 1/2 hours… and although I can’t say it’s a “First Growth” in the normal use of the terminology, it’s damn good!  I am really impressed… it is one of the best wines I’ve had in recent months.  If you are into luscious, layered, tannic, complex California Cabernet and have found yourself disappointed time again with Australian Cabs… you have got to check this one out.

The Parker Coonawarra Estate First Growth is a Cabernet/ Merlot blend, made only in the best years – when the grapes deserve to be in a bottle that declares itself a First Growth. According to their website (  http://www.parkercoonawarraestate.com.au/cpa/htm/htm_home.asp?page_id=35 ) -

“Each vintage small quantities of the best fruit is selected for the Terra Rossa First Growth. If in any one year the grapes do not reach the high standard set, then no Terra Rossa First Growth is made, as was the case in 1992, 1995, 1997, 2002 & 2003 . In those years the wine released was under the Terra Rossa Cabernet Sauvignon label.”

And according to the critics:

Wine Spectator: 90 pts. A distinctive red, firm, even a bit chewy, but generous with its spicy black cherry, leather and caramel flavors, finishing dry and lively. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Best from 2005 through 2010. 2,600 cases made. –HS

Robert Parker 92 pts.  Potentially better than the 2000, but also more structured and tannic, is the formidably endowed, immensely promising 2001 First Growth Terra Rossa. A Cabernet Sauvignon-dominated offering with a touch of Merlot in the blend, it needs 2-3 years of cellaring, and should keep for 15+. Its opaque purple color is followed by gorgeous aromas of scorched earth, creme de cassis, blackberries, cedar, caramel, and licorice. Full-bodied, with an opulent attack followed by a structured, tannic finish, this pure, dense, promising 2001 will be at its finest between 2006-2018.

Bottom line… if you’re so inclined… come in a get a bottle… drink it or lay it down.  Either way, it’s well worth the $65.00

UPDATE:  The Parker Coonawarra Estate First Growth is specially priced for Wine Club members @ $55.00!!

Laurel Glen Vineyard – 2005 Reds

 This past Monday night Loreen was out of town and I didn’t feel much like cooking, so I stopped in at my favorite little eatery and wine boutique (CLG of course!).  I decided on the grilled beef & provolone panini for dinner… as well as the 2005 Laurel Glen Reds.  I’ve had several recent conversations with people in regards to excellent valued wines to complement food.  This is one I recalled as being just that – but it had been a while and I wanted to confirm what I’d been telling people!

Patrick & Faith Campbell began farming the property that would become Laurel Glen Vineyard in 1977 and founded the winery in 1981.  They initially produced Cabernet Sauvignon , however, have since expanded their offerings to include two estate Cabernets from Sonoma County, CA, several Malbec’s from Argentina and two selections within their California Heartland Reds – the ZaZin Old Vine Zinfandel and the Reds.

Reds, from the Lodi appellation, is a blend consiting of 40% Zinfandel (60 year old vines), 25% Carignane (117 year old vines) and 35% Syrah & Petite Sirah.  It is matured in French and American oak barrels for nine months.  Total production of the 2005 Reds is 13,000 cases.  Billed as a wine for the people, Reds is described as displaying “a deep ruby core. Fresh, bright scents of blackberry, cassis, cherry and violet. It’s very pure and graceful, with mineral-driven dark berry and bitter cherry flavors and an elegant, velvety texture. Finishes fresh and long, with an echoing note of cherry.”

I found Reds to be a fantastic valued food wine – priced at $11.00 it was a great choice with my beef & provolone panini!  The wine initially displayed fruit characteristics but with a bit of palate cleansing crispness in the mid-palate (I take this is as a medium acid level which is great for food pairing).  The wine further struck me as spicy with a creamy dark/dried cherry finish.  I could easily see this as a Monday through Wednesday wine for casual meals such as pizza, lighter grilled meat or even medium Italian dishes.  It’s not a Serious Steak or Roast Beast wine, but it hit the spot Monday!

For information about Laurel Glenn and their wines: www.laurelglen.com

Ron’s Wine Picks

In thinking about things to drone on about here it’s pretty apparent we’ve got to talk about wine… which is great.  I like wine… I like wine a lot… no, seriously, I really enjoy wine.  I think it goes without saying I enjoy drinking it, however, I also really like learning about it… “it” being wine, grape varieties, grape growing, wine making, wine regions, wineries, wine history, people involved in wine making, wine chemistry, wine consumption, the wine industry in general, wine tasting, wine smelling, wine evaluating and nearly all that is wine.  Get the point?

So, given my affinity to wine, I decided to include a couple categories for my postings: Wine Stuff, which will cover general items about AOTA and this little category Ron’s Wine Picks.  I’m not qualified to taste, evaluate and rate a wine like those in the big wine publications or found elsewhere on the WWW, however, I’m damn qualified to tell you what I like!  That’s the great thing about wine – it’s very personal and we don’t all have to like what everyone (or anyone) else does.  And we don’t have to be an ”expert” or “professional” to know what we like!  If you can’t identify all the aromas and/or tastes found in the tasting notes (I know I can’t!), who cares?  The most important thing is to be adventurous and willing to step out of your little bottle – trust and entice your palate, drink what you enjoy and enjoy what you drink!  Along the way you’re bound to learn a thing or three… about wine, friends and life - and that my friends, is really the point.

So, check back now and again and see what’s in my glass…

Regards.