What I'm Drinking now, Vol. 8, no. 87

Looks like a re-fill is in order

2008 Domaine Bart Marsannay Rosé

Delicious pinot noir rosé from a terrific producer, and one of my favorite areas of Burgundy, way up north in the Cotes de Nuits: Marsannay. Gouleyant (I recently learned that's French for 'gulpable'), fresh, precise, and surprisingly, not bad with spicy nacho Doritos.

I am quite ready for some Mandelay Burmese take-out....

More Rosé....

Our Saturday tasting at the store was rosés, and while the line-up was solid, three in particular really stood out.

2007 Chateau Pradeaux Bandol Rose

Funny thing, I’m reading Reflections of a wine merchant by Neal Rosenthal and two of the three rosés on this list are imported by the man himself – they are both on the higher end of their category, but incredibly tasty as well, which is in line with Rosenthal’s overall portfolio, at times expensive (especially on the west coast) but almost always of excellent quality and the worth the cost. This ’07 Pradeaux shows a really intense, bright character, with a touch of orange peel and a ridiculously long finish which is a bit spicy as well. Generally I’m not much of a Bandol rose person, but this is truly terrific. At $25 it’s not inexpensive, but I’ll still probably get a few to cellar for several years.

2007 Domaine de la Petite Mairie Bourgueil Rosé

I was so disappointed with the one cab franc rose I tried last year, a Chinon rose from Clos l’Echo. It was dark, clumsy, and well, overly cabby (as in cab family green vegetal flavors). This cabernet franc rose from Bourgueil is more like it: pink onion skin color, delicate aromas merely suggesting, not screaming, the herbal qualities of Cabernet franc, and lots of bright raspberry flavors, which were crisp and really cut through the palate.

2007 Lazy Creek Pinot Noir Rose Anderson Valley

Here I go again recommending a California wine. Oh well, I guess I’ll continue to lose wine geek points for writing about good CA wine (as well as Spanish for that matter) instead of a Beaujolais rose or Pineau d’aunis rose or something. But this is another rosé that is of extremely high quality, albeit at a price - $25. Produced from pinot noir selected especially for rosé production, and of course fermented with indigenous yeasts, this is my favorite kind of rosé: a rosé that tastes every bit like a lighter version of the varietal(s) and the winery’s estate offering (other examples: Tondonia rosado, Musar rose, Joseph Roty Marsannay rose) The Lazy Creek estate pinot noir typically is big, broad, spicy and dark fruited, a masculine style but seriously dry for CA pinot. All of this comes across in this delicious rosé, just in a more refreshing and transparent style.

So that's the latest pink report, with I'm sure more rosé notes to come over the proceeding summer months. Will be even happier when my slowly, ever so slowly growing roma tomato plant bears fruit for gazapacho, spaghetti a la trapanese (uncooked tomato sauce with chopped almonds), and all kinds of other uses.

Pink wines in brown bags.

I arrived late and decided to roll note-free for this tasting with my fellow PMW tasting group members, so I'm not going to run through the wines and provide notes on each. Rather, here is a list of the hits and misses of the evening.

DELICIOUS ROSES

2007 Hijos de Crescencia Merino Viña Catajarros Rosado 'Elite' Cigales

Fresh, vibrant, sun soaked red fruits, with good intensity and a strong backbone of acidity lending a fresh finish to the wine. 80% tempranillo, 10% verdejo and 10% assorted others including garnacha and the rare white albillo (see Valduero post below).

2007 Unti Rose Dry Creek Valley

This was part of a four wine all domestic flight which many thought was all French. 60% grenache, 40% mourvedre. Given the light onion skin color and peculiar chewy savor of the wine, I thought Bandol all the way. Gary, who imports predominately French wines, said that there was no way this could be Bandol, and if it were in fact a famous Bandol rose, then he would give serious pause to his choice of profession. Thankfully, Gary was right, so keep on importing, Gary. Apparently I am familiar enough with Bandol rose to spot something similar, but not enough so to catch a look-alike from Dry Creek Valley (albeit a good one, from a producer who overall makes some pretty spot on wines, with natural yeasts, from grapes that are not overly ripe).

2007 Uvaggio Barbera Rose Lodi

Very pretty, with incredibly bright strawberry/raspberry flavors and terrific acidity. Tasted blind, this could have been a gamay or pinot noir rose - from France. And where is the wine really from? Lodi! I kid you not, this refreshing, nuanced, lovely little rose was from hot, hot Lodi, California. Now before the haters start to hate I should mention that the wine checked in with a mere 12% alcohol, and that yes, good wines can be made and are made in California, and it is not only made by Steve Edmunds. Wine drinkers, remember that there are always exceptions, and California winemakers, PICK YOUR GRAPES EARLIER!

FUCKED UP ROSE OF THE NIGHT

2006 Fort Ross Vineyard Rose Sonoma Coast

No surprise here, as anything I have had from these folks has been god awful. Truly repulsive. This one-year-old rose had had it. Fading fruit of a rancio quality, with residual sugar, zero acidity, and high alcohol. Vaguely reminiscent of triaminic cough syrup (triaminic, by the way, is way worse than Robitussin). Shall I do a Rovani-esque 'hypothetical blend' for you? Sure, why not. This is a hypothetical blend between a dirty vin doux naturel from the southern Rhone and poorly made new world gewurztraminer, stored on the upper-most location of a Southern Wines & Spirits warehouse - the southern California warehouse.

More sabor from Spain

One of our reps with a terrific book of Spanish wines - from wacky and funky, to traditional and regional, to cool and modern - came by today to sample a few things. Here are the wines:

Pere Ventura Cava Brut Nature

Brut nature= no dosage. It is an increasingly popular movement in Penedes, and for good reason if this wine is an indication of how exciting the quality can be. Touch of toastiness on the nose, leading to the crispest, driest, most precise tasting cava I have ever tasted. A real winner.

Sanstrave 'e' Cava Brut Nature Gran Reserva

48 months on the lees. Much more yeastiness on the nose, which also had a very prominent, funky, yellow miso aspect to it. It was similarly of the earth on the palate. Not much in the way of fruit here. Not so good.

2005 Vina Ijalba Blanco

Produced from Tempranillo Blanco, from a mutated section of their Tempranillo vineyard. Ijalba functions as a nursery for rare Rioja varietals, and makes some pretty exciting stuff. This wine is explosive on the nose - loads of quince and a hint of red fruits. Very textural, fleshy palate, and once again explosive. It is like dry Chenin that doesn't need a lot of time to come around; it's already delicious. Apricot and tangy red currant fruits were full and mouthfilling.

2006 Odysseus Rosat

This could be Spain's most expensive rosado. It had red fruit, with pomegranate leading the way, on the nose. A bit stinky as well. Grippy and palate coating, it reminded me of a 2002 Kir-Yianni Akakies I drunk quite a bit of 4 years ago, with less acidity but a very similar funkiness. Thing is, the Akakies is half the price.

2006 Valduero La Uve Toro

A bit bubblegummy on the nose. But fresh dark fruit, moderate tannins and a bit more liveliness than the nose would suggest made for a pleasant enough Toro. I often can't stand wine from this D.O.- too one-dimensional and clumsy. The fact that this was fermented in stainless (probably preceeded by a carbonic maceration) clearly helped to make this more to my liking.

2006 Martin Berdugo Ribera del Duero Joven 2006

Reductive, reductive, dark fruit. Lacking in purity, overly aggressive tannins. Poorly made wine.


2004 Vina Ijalba Graciano

Easily better than their 2003 Graciano, which was pretty damn good itself. I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is one of the 2 or 3 most interesting young Spanish red wines I've ever tasted. Very aromatic, with white pepper and floral notes, a touch of Indian spices as well. Cote Rotie-like. Blue and purple fruits on the palate, with very fine grained tannins. Impressive, and for under $25 a real steal.

1998 Valduero Ribera del Duero Reserva

Black cherry jam and blackberry nose leads to more of the same on the palate. Well-integrated tannins and acidity, pure fruit, terrific intensity and length. Still very primary, but beginning to hit its stride. I'll have to get a few bottles to drink in 3 or so years. This wine spends 30 months in barrel, 2/3 American oak and 1/3 French, both previously used.

2003 Sangenis i Vaque Priorat

Priorat is typically not my thing. As recently as one and a half years ago, yes. Now, I either hate the wines as most are so sickly fruity and over-extracted, or shrug my shoulders at the wines that are ok but still pricey and not quite exciting (a la Palacios Les Terrases). Though this particular Priorat is not my style, it was distinctive. Very dark fruited, with the intensity of many $50-$80 Priorats, sans cloying fruit. Good minerality (slate here is more red than the blue stuff that dominates many of the estates which produce and export Priorat to the US market). Not my style but I respect this wine. And it retails for about $30. Which follows the inverse correlation between price and quality I'm continuing to observe in estate's offerings througout Priorat.