by Christina Waters | Jun 7, 2007 | Home, Wine |
Well, the wine I fell in love with was a Windy Oaks Pinot Noir 2003 to die for! It had everything – supple, plummy, some olallieberry, a hint of leather (the kind on a jacket that has been worn by an Italian BMW driver) and only 14.2 alcohol. Enough to hold all those flavors, plus some tannin, but not enough to toast your eyeballs.
BUT, it’s gone. All gone. And the 2004 has crept up in price by $6 (bringing it to over $30 a bottle). There’s a lesson here, which probably involves not falling for a wine you can’t afford to buy a case of. Or something like that.
by Christina Waters | May 14, 2007 | Home, Wine |
It was my friend Mateo who came up with the perfect description for this fine young Sauvignon Blanc. “It’s the perfect summer gardening wine!” And it is (though let me take a minute to acknowledge the only-in-California phrasing of that line.) He referred to the Santa Ynez Valley Winery Sauvignon Blanc with the colorful label – vintage 2005 – 13 % alcohol, and moderately packed with fruit and nuts. I’ll be more specific. We found a cantaloupe and citrus opening, with a hint of jalapeño smoke in the center and a walnut finish. It tastes as interesting, but not as multi-media, as that description indicates.
Here’s the most interesting part. The $6 price tag. Available at Trader Joes, the wine is inexpensive enough to play a starring role in your next outdoor picnic, bbq or garden party. You have been advised.
by Christina Waters | Apr 16, 2007 | Home, Wine |
Take a careful look at this label. Memorize it. Now go out and find one just like it and bring it home. This is your new best friend, oenologically-speaking. It is Bonny Doon Vineyards‘ 2004 Syrah Le Pousseur, loaded with meaty tones of spice, cassis, some indefinable berry and a top note of eucalyptus. Maybe bay leaves. Whatever. This is a wine to delve deeply into, or simply to enjoy while thumbing through your dog-eared copy of The Three Sigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Already this wine — another star from the intergalactic consciousness of wine auteur Randall Grahm — is ample and complex enough to match any rack of lamb, molecule for molecule. Given a few more years it will be able to enter any Rhône intensive in the northern hemisphere. Well under $20 but drinks like a whole lot more.
by Christina Waters | Apr 16, 2007 | Home, Wine |
Vitiphiliacs and Bonny Doon Vineyards wine club members gathered at the winery last Saturday, for a dinner of rustic elegance wrapped around some sensational wines. Convened by BD founder Randall Grahm, the dinner helped to introduce the latest oenologic from the irrepressible impresario du vin. Sure enough, the “David Bowie of wine” is reinventing his vintage dreamscape once again, only this time instead of a predictable expansion, Bonny Doon Vineyards is in the midst of a surgical down-sizing. Way down. Determined to return to the roots of his personal vision, Grahm is transitioning from mega-winery (450,000 cases last year), to a micro, hand-made, biodynamic, all-Santa Cruz Mountains estate facility. With the re-configuration of priorities, comes a new marketing strategist, Burke Owens, recently of Napa’s Copia, and former sommelier at Masa’s….But back to the dinner.
Randall explained to me over chilled Erbaluce di Caluso spumante and crisp baguettes topped with alderwood-smoked salmon that he was aggressively seeking new vineyard property in the Santa Cruz Mountains. And a renewed quest for terroir baby, terroir. And after years of making his reputation as a leading Rhône Ranger, thanks to BD’s wildly successful Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre and Roussane blends, Grahm is once again slouching toward Burgundy. “I really feel that pinot noir is something I want to try in a new way.†So the focus is now intensified. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Mar 20, 2007 | Home, Wine |
That would be the current sale of Truchard Syrah 2000 for $12.99. You heard me. A seven-year-old killer wine from Carneros, Napa’s fabled domain of volcanic soil and deep terroir, for under thirteen dollars! It’s at Shoppers Corner right now (corner of Branciforte and Soquel for those out-of-town readers), and just so you know that I put my money where my mouth is, I just bought a case of the stuff myself. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Mar 14, 2007 | Home, Wine |
Great red wine for under $10: It’s my new house red wine, the wittily-labelled 2004 Syrah, Domaine des Blagueur from Bonny Doon Vineyard, where every bottle comes with a witty label. Big, but not aggressive – full of fruit, yet well-mannered as a partner for foods, and most of all delicious. This Syrah is loaded with insistent tones of cassis, pepper, licorice and a whiff of rust. A mineral back, if you will.
Ralph Steadman’s label drawing of a joker with attitude says it all. Rustic sophistication, and despite the “here’s blood-in-your eye” label, this wine is no joke. Thirteen percent alcohol makes it an easy rider with everything from roast pork to striped bass, and the screw-top cap makes it even easier to access. French grapes (from the Languedoc in SW France), BD finesse. Allez vites! and get yours!
