2007 Undurraga Syrah T.H.

Type: Red
Producer: Undurraga
Variety: Syrah
Designation: T.H.
Country: Chile
Region: Coquimbo
SubRegion: Limarí Valley
Price: $24
Disclosure- This was received as a free bottle sample.



Night One

The nose was very fruity, with a veritable fruit cocktail of blueberry, mulberry, black cherry, and a bit of strawberry. Surprisingly, there was far less fruit on the palate. It was darker, more brooding, with lots of black pepper and some grenache-like dried orange peel. Unsweetened chocolate showed up on the mid-palate.

Night Two

If the nose on Night One was a fruit cocktail, on Night Two it is mixed-fruit jam, with sweet jammy mulberry and plums, along with cedar and vanilla. On the palate, there was elderberry and some slightly artificial Grape Nehi flavoring. It brightened up slightly on the mid-palate shut showed too much wood, melting into brown sugar and vanilla. Tannins were mild, the finish short.

Conclusion

This is a pretty good pop-n-pour, offering interesting fruit and some pleasant secondary flavors. At $24 I think it is stretching the upper end of the reasonable price range for what it has to offer, but it is not, quite, over-priced.






This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

2007 Waters Crest Chardonnay Private Reserve

Vintage 2007
Type White
Producer Waters Crest
Variety Chardonnay
Designation Private Reserve
Country USA
Region New York
SubRegion Long Island
Appellation North Fork
Disclosure This was received as an unsolicited free sample.



Night One

I wrestled with the nose for at least thirty minutes before admitting what I was smelling-flat Blue Moon with a lime slice floating atop it, with a toasted toothpick stuck through the lime. But, and this will seem truly weird, in a good way.

The palate is equally odd, and quite similar to the nose. Age flat Blue Moon in heavily toasted French oak (lots of toasty wood, but not vanilla or butter, so not American oak) for 18 months, add a slice of lime, and you will know what this wine tastes like.

Night Two

The nose is not significantly different from Night One. It has the same flat-beer and toasted wood aroma, though the toast is stronger. There is also a little ginger.

The palate is also similar to Night One. The lime is gone, replaced by ginger, but flat beer aged in very heavily toasted oak remains the lead flavor. If you really hunt for it you can find a bit of apple, but not much.

Varietal characteristics show up, not in the flavor, but in the mouth-feel. This is incredibly creamy, mouth-filling, and smooth.

I realize my description does not sound like a great wine, but that would not be fair. Let me tell you what I did. I took this to one my "wine guy," one of the two best palates (IMHO) in Indiana to get his opinion, because this was just so different. On the nose he asked, "Australia?," but no guess on varietal. He picked up chardonnay on the creamy mid-palate, not the flavor. Then he picked up the phone, called the winery, and asked if he could be their exclusive carrier in the State. This is really interesting wine, and you could blind taste-test 100 sommeliers in a row, and if 1 says "Long Island" without cheating, I'll buy you another bottle. The wine guy, by the way, is going to market this as "Cigar Chard," for cigar lovers who prefer white to red, because its mouth-filling toastiness has the body to complement a good smoke.





This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

2007 Humanitas Chardonnay Oak Free

Type: White
Producer: Humanitas
Variety: Chardonnay
Designation: Oak Free
Country: USA
Region: California
SubRegion: Central Coast
Appellation: Monterey County



The Little Wooden Guy really appreciates good wine without the gratuitous use of wood, so give this one a try.

Night One

The nose has more pears than apples, plus a bit of soft banana. There is also a slight underlying background tropical smell of pineapple.

The palate has a thick glycerin mouth-feel. The flavors open with apple, turning to pineapple and starfruit toward the mid-palate. This is creamy smooth, and a welcome oak- and vanilla-free.

Night Two

The nose is more tropical on Night Two than Night One. The lead fruit is pineapple, some butterscotch, and bruised red apples.

The palate, too, is more tropical on the attack, leading with sweet-tart fresh pineapple plus the soft flavor of banana. Apples appear on the mid-palate, along with some butterscotch, before tartness returns on the mid-palate. The tartness is not the sour tart you would find in lemon or lime, but the sweet tropical bite of a starfruit.

This is good wine. If you have run away from Chardonnay, afraid of juice flavored with wood, vanilla, and butter, come back and try it again.

TerraNoble Gran Reserva Carmenere 2007

Type Red
Producer TerraNoble
Variety Carménère
Designation Gran Reserva
Country Chile
Region Central Valley
SubRegion Maule Valley
Price $16.99 in Indianapolis



The Big Wooden Guy liked this Chilean charmer. We only took notes on Night One, since it was one of the Thanksgiving wines, and it did not last through to Night Two.

The nose was startling in its clear, unmistakable coffee smell, like fresh espresso. That was followed by some blackberries. Coffee was prevalent on the palate, too, with dark chocolate and blackberries. Tannins were very slightly dusty, but not obtrusive. This was a very enjoyable rich wine, a good food wine, and a great QPR.

Sonoma Vineyards Syrah 2007

Type- Red
Producer- Sonoma Vineyards
Variety- Syrah
Country- USA
Region- California
SubRegion- Sonoma County
Appellation- Sonoma County
Alcohol- 13.8%
Price- approx. $20.00



"Ta-Dah!" The Little Wooden Guy thinks he's found a good wine at a great price.

I received this as a free sample from Sonoma Vineyards. This is their first release of Syrah and it will have a suggested retail price of $15. According to the information sent with the wine, the fruit comes from the Russian River Valley and Alexander Valley.

Night One

Color was deep inky purple, going to bright shiny ruby at the edges.

The nose is a pleasure, a meat and jam-filled treat. Bunches of black fruit are softened with some bloody meat, along with cinnamon and black pepper. It is the kind of wine you can just smell for the longest time, forgetting for a while you are supposed to drink the stuff.

Blackberries, barely sweet real ones, not jam, and black pepper are clearly delineated flavors on the initial attack. Sometimes you struggle to discern one taste from the next, or to distinguish different kinds of black fruit. This is not one of those times. No, this is like blackberries dusted with black pepper just popping in your mouth. The mid-palate turned slightly toward red fruit, tart unsweetened cranberries. An hour later some chocolate joined the red fruit. The finish was mid-length. Fine smooth tannins are a little mouth-drying, but not puckering like a young cabernet, offering plenty of structure.

Night Two

After a night under the screw-cap top alcohol seems to have concentrated. The nose was hot for about an hour after re-opening. Once that blew off black fruit led the nose, along with some chocolate.

Plums and some blueberries, plus loads of milk chocolate, open the attack. This seems to have sweetened considerably over night. Some vanilla appeared on the mid-palate, an obvious result of eight months in French and American oak, but it was balanced, not over-powering. The finish fell off rather quickly.

This is a very good QPR (quality to price ratio) wine. It gives some classic Syrah tastes, particularly the black pepper and smooth tannins. For a mere $15 this is a nice bottle.

Cruising the Caribbean and drinking wine

I took the wife and kidlets on a seven day cruise of the Western Caribbean last week. Lots of stops of T-shirts and shells, and endless buffet of mediocre food, great service and food that didn't match for dinner, and a genuinely boring wine list. But wait, I brought some of my own wine. Or at least, I tried. The ship was out of Miami. My mom lives in Miami. I sent her boyfriend a list of wines to buy and his wine ***SUPERSTORE*** did not have a single one out of a dozen or more. Rest assured, the wine guy said, here are some bottles that he'll LOOOOVE, if he liked those. Let's see how that worked out, shall we?

I suggested Chateau Branaire-Ducru 1999. They didn't have it. Their substitute?

Arthurs, Cotes de Castillon 2004

Grand vin de Bordeaux
13% alc

Night One

The nose was green, herbaceous & hot, hiding a tiny little bit of black fruit & blueberries. The overall smell was of unripe wine, stems & leaves. It did not improve on the palate, which was all green, stems & leaves. There was a little black fruit. Very dry leathery tannins overpowered everything else.

Night Two

Blackcurrants & blackberries lead the nose, which has far more fruit and less green on nt 2. It seems hot & makes me wonder about the alcohol level. The palate was less green, showing blackberry and a touch of sage, but it ends with very strong overpowering tannins that dry out the mouth and leave little but leather & plum skins.

I suggested Groom Shiraz 2004. They didn't have it. The substitute?

Thorn Clarke Terra-Barossa Shiraz 2006

This was pretty good stuff.

Night One

The nose was very powerful, but not merely a fruit bomb. It brought coffee & black pepper, and blackberries. The palate brought blackberries & pepper, some coffee, softening on the mid-palate to more mild plums & black cherries. It had a long finish & fine sweet tannins, slightly drying, promising plenty more life in the cellar.

Night Two

The nose was blackberries & black pepper, with some black cherry. The palate was blueberry & black cherry, and sweet tannins. The mid-palate evolved to vanilla, cedar & cream. It was very creamy & soft. Fruity but not a fruit bomb. It had a long tooth-coating finish. Very good.

I went to a wine tasting on board the ship. It was a special tasting set up for frequent cruisers (my mother cruises all the time an gave me her tickets). I was a bit surprised to see just how they low-balled the wine selection for their best customers. It was also very fast, lacking sufficient time to really explore the wines, or to take very good notes.

First up was Caliterras Sauvignon Blanc, '07

The color was very light, an almost clear gold. The nose brought lemon zest, pink grapefruit & ginger. The ginger was not overpowering but was very evident. As soon as I mentioned it everybody at the table nodded their heads, as if it was the smell they were trying to put their fingers on. The initial attack was grapefruit and grass. Th ginger from the nose showed up clearly on the mid-palate. The finish was medium length. The mouth feel was slightly oily, and the overall impression a little fat.

Second up was Stone Cellars Chardonnay, '07

The color was pale straw. The nose was pure caramel apple. The same apples and caramel showed up on attack, along with some lemon zest. The apple-taste changed a bit on the mid-palate, moving from fresh apples to baked apples, vanilla & brown sugar. The vanilla seemed to just get stronger and stronger throughout, the wood eventually taking over. The overall impression was very fat and woody.

Third up was, by far, the most interesting wine in the tasting, Footprint Syrah '07.

I have never smelled such obvious coffee-grounds in a bottle of wine. The coffee was just screamingly obvious, along with some black pepper and blackberry. Very interesting. The coffee was there on the attack, too, along with unsweetened chocolate, burned rubber & blackberries. The tasting was ripping right along, but this is worth a follow-up with some more time to explore.

Stone Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon '06

Initially, the nose was interesting, even promising. There was the signature Cabernet blackcurrant, but that was not all. It also brought a surprising amount of mint. In fact, the mint was so clear I could identify it not just as mint, but specifically as wintergreen. There was also, alas, enough vanilla, or should I say VANILLA, to hint of oak to come. On the palate, too, there was promised, ultimately crushed by wood. Eucalyptus joined the blackcurrant and mint, but it all devolved quickly into vanilla and wood. This was a potentially pretty good wine absolutely crushed by efforts to make it mainstream and generic.

Finally, we had a reisling, Leonard Kreusch Reisling spatlese late harvest '07.

The nose was very sweet, offering not just pears, but the juice of canned pears. There were apples, too, along with the key lime from a key lime pie, rather than pure juice. Apples disappeared on the palate, leaving primarily pears plus a little key lime. We got hustled out to clear space for the first dinner seating so I can't say much more.

My overall impression was not overly enthusiastic. The wine list was a little thin. Mark-ups were not bad (about double, when they had a captive audience), but selections were pretty low-end with a few very high end "name" wines, like Opus 1 and Darioush. What it was really missing were the good wines in the middle.

Crios de Susana Balbo Rose of Malbec 2007

Mendoza, Argentina
13.8% alcohol

As the little wooden guy is pointing out, this came with a screw-top. He didn't mind. he really liked this wine.

From the bottlenotes:

Wines under my Crios (offspring) label display ripe fruit flavors, excellent balance, and are meant to be enjoyed in their vibrant youth. This rose is produced using the traditional "saignee" method, a blending of the lightly - colored juice from the skins of my fermenting old-vine Malbec grapes at just the right time to generate a brilliant red color. Old-vine Malbec grapes create a richer, spicier wine than most other roses from around the world, which gives the wine memorable flexibility to pair with a wide range of foods. And like my own crios, this Rose of Malbec is extremely lovable and fun to be around.

The color was bright translucent pink, the color of cranapple juice.

The nose was sweet, strawberry, candied cherries and some spice, maybe cloves and ginger. It was full-bodied, a true child of the juice and the skins, rather than just the juice, with the skins in the role of a distant uncle. The palate opened with sweet fruit, strawberry and cherries, but a firm midpalate of smoke, cloves and ginger said this was a serious wine. Then it got playful again, ending in candied fruit and ginger, like a fresh holiday fruit cake.

SECOND NIGHT

Close your eyes and take a sniff- is that a glass of wine or am I in a room full of strawberries? Nope, not just strawberries, there are some Ruby Red grapefruit here, too, and cinnamon.

Sip it. Strawberries first, just like the nose, a touch of cocoa powder that reminds you it comes from malbec grapes, then the same Ruby Red grapefruit and cinammon from the nose. Some of the cherries from night one join for the finish.

This is a good rose. It is bright, acidic, fresh, and even just slightly tannic. This is a rose that reminds you it really does come from a red grape, not just a tinted white.