Type Red Producer Château de Fieuzal Variety Red Bordeaux Blend Country France Region Bordeaux SubRegion Graves Appellation Pessac-Léognan
The Wooden Guys just love old Bordeaux. The fruit has faded. Back then wood was not as prevalent. Instead, it is like a trip to the flower shop. In a glass.
An older Bordeaux is a beautiful thing. The color was just starting to turn brick red, without even a hint of orange at the edges. The nose and palate are delicate, trending toward sublime, rather than big and fruity. The nose was light, delicate. The first aroma was dry ancient leather, then a hint of tarragon. Florals followed, very light scents of lavendar and lilac flowing from the glass.
On the palate, too, there were delicate flavors. Fruit had retired, gone after a decade in the bottle, replaced by soft leather, lavendar and lilac, and a bit of fennel. The feel was silky smooth, acids still bright. The finish was long.
Type Red Producer Dowie Doole Variety Cabernet Sauvignon Designation n/a Vineyard n/a Country Australia Region South Australia SubRegion Fleurieu Appellation McLaren Vale Price $13.00
The Little Wooden Guy just gets warm fuzzy feelings for an under $15 dollar Cabernet that tastes like Cabernet, not oak juice.
Night One
The nose tells you right up front this is a warm weather wine, but after that nothing is obvious. This is a very deep dark nose. Imagine dark chocolate covered blackberries a elderberries, lightly dusted with espresso. There is also a touch of fennel.
Okay, that's startling. This is incredibly dark. It is deep with elderberry, but the berries, not sweet jam. It has loads of tobacco, burnt coffee grounds and unsweetened chocolate. Some plums join the show on the mid-palate, but it does not really show big changes there. This is wound pretty tight. It should be interesting to see what happens to it on Night Two.
Night Two
On Night Two the nose is a bit more classic Cabernet. It opens with blackcurrant, eucalyptus and some sage.
The palate has changed, too. Blackcurrant and elderberry, now a bit more jammy than on Night One but not a fruit bomb by any measure, open the attack. Now there is a definite mid-palate, presenting chocolate, smoked meat and eucalyptus. Plum skins show up just as it moves to the finish. The mouth-feel is smooth and silky.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a $13 Cabernet Sauvignon. If you have been reading for a while, you know I usually just skip low-priced Cabs, preferring to spend $20 or under on other varietals that show better in the lower price range. However, at $13 this is a steal.
Type Red Producer Montoya Vineyards Variety Cabernet Sauvignon Designation Proprietor Owned Vineyard Montoya Vineyards Country USA Region California SubRegion Napa Valley Appellation Napa Valley Price $13
If The Big Wooden Guy had thumbs, he would be giving a "thumbs up" to an under $15 drinkable Napa Cabernet.
Night One
This has currant, but it is an underlying aroma. The predominate aroma is vegetal, plus some green olive, along with enough black pepper to make you think "grenache."
The palate is fairly simple and harsh. It is sweet-fruit forward, mostly plum and some blueberry. It has some of the same vegetal tastes as the nose. The same vegetation, plus some green pepper, makes up the mid-plate. The finish is short and metallic. Tannins are harsh.
This is not great wine. It is also a $13 Napa Cabernet. This raises a question I have asked several times before, why drink low-priced mediocre Cabernet when there are so many other good wines in the same price range? But who knows, it might be a lot better on Night Two.
Night Two
What a difference a night makes! The harsh vegetation and overpowering pepper is gone from the nose. Now it has a more classic Cabernet, with blackcurrant, a little coffee and chocolate, and plums.
The fruit is far softer on the palate, too. It opens with a lot of plum and mulberry. Some eucalyptus appears for a moment as it shifts to the mid-palate, before the typical maple and brown sugar of moderately-priced Cali Cabs takes over. The finish is mid-length. Tannins are surprisingly smooth and sweet.
This is a THIRTEEN DOLLAR Napa Valley Cabernet. Is it great? Nope. Is it good? No, not really. Is it competent, and competitive with Cabernets at twice the price? Yup. Absolutely. Give this several hours to breath and you will have a drinkable $13 Napa Cab. How can that be a bad thing?
The Big Wooden Guy and The Little Wooden Guy thought you might like to see their wine cellar. I needed to increase the humidity a little, so I made the fountain out of some empty wine bottles. That is what you hear if you turn up the sound. Wave back at the Wooden Guys.
Type Red Producer Yangarra Estate Variety Grenache Designation Old Vine Country Australia Region South Australia SubRegion Fleurieu Appellation McLaren Vale Price $25.98
The Big Wooden Guy is not pleased. You don't turn Grenache into Aussie fruit-bomb Shiraz, even if you are from down under. How the heck did this get a 90+ rating?
Night One
The nose opens with some jammy dark fruit, mostly elderberry, with black pepper, earth and brambles. It also has an underlying lingering licorice aroma.
The palate is very true to the nose. The wine opens with jammy dark elderberry and black pepper. It has earth and brambles, giving it underlying depth and keeping it from qualifying as a "fruit bomb." Licorice is more pronounced on the palate than the nose. A bit of dried orange peel appears on the mid-palate. The finish is mid-length and trends away from the fruit and toward black pepper and orange peel.
Night Two
The nose is less complex than on Night One, opening with black fruit and black pepper, and not much else.
The palate, too, is less complex. It is mostly jammy fruit bomb sprinkled with some black pepper. A bit of coffee makes a quick appearance, and equally quick disappearance, on the mid-palate, then the finish reverts to big fruit plus vanilla. Tannins are slightly grainy.
This wine got great reviews from the commercial magazines, 90+. I don't get it. This is Grenache turned into Aussie Shiraz fruit bomb.
Type Red Producer Viñedos y Bodegas Pablo Variety Garnacha Designation Menguante Country Spain Region Aragón Appellation Cariñena Price $8.99
This is under $10. Amazing.
Night One
This has a powerful nose, full of blackberry, mulberry, and orange peel.
The palate is extraordinarily complex for an under $10 wine. It starts with blackberries and pepper, then adds orange peel, intense spices and licorice. The wine is medium-bodied and tannins are smooth, adding leather to the finish. The finish is long.
This is absurdly good for an under $10 wine. Is it great? No, not really. Is it great on a price to quality ratio? Heck yeah. Come back on Night Two to see it it stands up.
Night Two
The nose is not as nice on Night Two, opening with sweet blackberries and the aroma of artificial grape soda. It still has a little of the orange peel from Night One. There is also a touch of tarragon.
The palate has also dropped off quite a bit from Night One. First, rather than smooth, it is gritty. Pepper is stronger than blackberry, but the taste of artificial fruit flavors, followed by a mid-palate with the clear metallic taste of garlic, is a real disappointment. The finish is all garlic and the aftertaste of artificial sweetener.
I adored this wine, for the dollar, on Night One. On Night Two, I am not even going to finish the bottle. In all fairness, though, this is an under-$10 wine, so it was made to drink fresh, not to rest in a cellar for years. For what it is, cheap wine meant to be drunk right away, it is terrific. Just make sure you have enough thirst, or enough friends, to put it all away the first night.
I don't do this very often, but once in a while we here at 2 Days per Bottle take a break to enjoy the world, and the wine world, around us. Today, I would like to commend a couple of fellow wine-bloggers, and direct your attention to them. Sure, there are plenty of wine blogs out there, and many of them are absolutely terrific. If you want to find a few to start following, you can't go wrong clicking on anything on the blogroll to your right (also, I hope you already follow AND subscribe to 2 Days per Bottle and The 89 Project). Today, though, I want to point out a couple of blog posts that show just what Wine Blogging can be.
The first is from McDuff's Food and Wine Trail, and the post is entitled Southern Exposure. It is David McDuff's entry for Wine Blogging Wednesday, sponsored this month by The Wine Case. In it, David writes as good a description as I have ever seen on the effect of northern or southern exposure (the direction a mountainside faces, not the direction a flasher, ahem, "points"), desribing the difference between two different Barolos grown within sight of each other. Here is the intro:
Have you ever found yourself enticed by the idea of a “bargain” Barolo? (Yes, I’m writing about Piedmont again, just like for last month's WBW.) Ever wondered what the difference is between those two theoretically regal Piedmontese reds sitting next to each other on the shelf, one priced around $30 and the other over $50? If you have, then you know there is a wealth of possible answers. One of the most meaningful, though, happens to be one that I’m guessing might not come immediately to mind: exposure. Not brand exposure, mind you, but vineyard exposure – the position of a site on a hillside and its correlating exposure to the sun’s rays.
Now click on over there and read the rest.
The second comes from Dr. Vino, and if you don't know who he is, you're in for a treat. Today, he writes about the curious effect of a century of war, starting with Otto von Bismark and ending (at least for now), not with the end of World War II, but with the creation of the European Union. What is he writing about? A vineyard where A Border Runs Through It. He tells the story of Friedrich Wilhelm Becker, who crosses from Germany to France, and back again, every time he wanders from the eastern side of his vineyard to the western side.
Today, about two-thirds of Becker’s 35 acres of vineyards are in Alsace with the remainder, as well as, the winery lying in Pfalz, specifically the town of Schweigen.
Is it German wine, French wine, or both? Does he need two different sets of labels? Fortunately, an accord was reached involving water, lumber, and probably at least three verses each of Lili Marlene:
So what do you grow if your vineyard straddles the French and German borders? Riesling? Gewürztraminer? Nope, Pinot Noir. Or Spätburgunder, as the call it locally.
There you have it, two great posts from two great wine blogs. Enjoy. And finally, since we're taking a break from wine reviewing, at least for the afternoon, the Big Wooden Guy is going to take his dog for a walk:
Remy, at The Wine Case, hosts this month's Wine Blogging Wednesday. The theme? North vs. South. So tonight, the Wooden Guys and I will be looking at Garnacha from Spain and Grenache from Australia. I am just going to compare first nights for both. The wines will be reviewed over two nights individually.
First, the Garnacha:
2005 Viñedos y Bodegas Pablo Garnacha Cariñena Menguante
Type Red Producer Viñedos y Bodegas Pablo Variety Garnacha Designation Menguante Country Spain Region Aragón Appellation Cariñena Price $8.99
Night One
This has a powerful nose, full of blackberry, mulberry, and orange peel.
The palate is extraordinarily complex for an under $10 wine. It starts with blackberries and pepper, then adds orange peel, intense spices and licorice. The wine is medium-bodied and tannins are smooth, adding leather to the finish. The finish is long.
This is absurdly good for an under $10 wine. Is it great? No, not really. Is it great on a price to quality ratio? Heck yeah. Come back on Night Two to see it it stands up.
And now, the Grenache:
2005 Yangarra Estate Grenache Old Vine
Type Red Producer Yangarra Estate Variety Grenache Designation Old Vine Country Australia Region South Australia SubRegion Fleurieu Appellation McLaren Vale Price $25.98
The nose opens with some jammy dark fruit, mostly elderberry, with black pepper, earth and brambles. It also has an underlying lingering licorice aroma.
The palate is very true to the nose. The wine opens with jammy dark elderberry and black pepper. It has earth and brambles, giving it underlying depth and keeping it from qualifying as a "fruit bomb." Licorice is more pronounced on the palate than the nose. A bit of dried orange peel appears on the mid-palate. The finish is mid-length and trends away from the fruit and toward black pepper and orange peel.
North versus South
The first obvious difference is the price difference. The Garnacha is under $10, while the Australian Grenache is over $25. The Australian is not two-and-a-half times better than the Spanish. In fact, I think I like the Spanish one better. It is more balanced, offers a far more interesting and entertaining nose, and has a better mid-palate. In the Spanish wine, and Spain is a warm weather country, too, the fruit is not big and jammy. Tannins and acid balance nicely, and the different tastes balance out. On the other hand, the mulberry dominates in the Australian wine, while everything else plays second-fiddle.
Type Red Producer Gainey Variety Pinot Noir Designation n/a Vineyard n/a Country USA Region California SubRegion Central Coast Price $30.40 from Bin Ends Wine, tasted as part of Twitter Taste Live.
The Big Wooden Guy tries the "Dancer" Yoga pose, not an easy feat after a bottle of win that is best drunk all in one night.
The nose was big right out of the bottle. It offered up a whole mix of cherries, from tiny clear native to big Bings, with allspice, and an echo of nutmeg. It was not over-oaked over-fruit, but not quite Burgundy in depth, either.
The palate bears almost no relationship to the nose. A lot more wood shows on the palate, a couple of scoops of vanilla. Spice is there, too, but more peppery, less exotic. It has a shift from cherry on the nose to raspberry on the palate, but the bigger shift is exotic sweet spice to pepper, nose to palate.
This is very good wine on Night One.
Night Two
The nose is far more muted on Night Two than on Night One. The fruit is softer cherry plus some strawberry. Most of the spice is gone.
There are loads of strawberry on the palate, but not really in a great way. It is more like artificial strawberry soda than fresh strawberries. It has a touch of white pepper, and some raspberry on the mid-palate.
The bottom line is simple- this wine was good, not great, but good, on Night One. On Night Two, not so much. That does not necessarily mean it won't last a bit in the cellar, but if you do open it, plan to drink it all that night.
Type Red Producer Sonoma Coast Vineyards Variety Pinot Noir Vineyard Petersen Country USA Region California SubRegion Sonoma County Appellation Sonoma Coast Price $60.40 From Bin Ends Wine, and tasted as part of Twitter Taste Live.
The Wooden Guys high-five each other over a very good bottle of wine with great potential.
Night One
This wine open with a rich and complex nose, one that is sure to take a few minutes to pick out the different aromas. This is the sort of nose that can be enjoyed so long you forget to take a sip. It starts with rich black dirt and the charred end of prime rib, then adds unsweetened chocolate, all over a strong base of deep red fruit.
The palate is at least as complex as the nose, serving up red fruit, smoked meat, chocolate and spices. Asian spices pop out on the mid-palate, followed by a delightful long finish with an intriguing after-taste of dried tangerine peel.
Night Two
The nose is not as rich as on Night One, but it is still delightful. It still has red fruit and dark chocolate, along with a teaspoon full of black dirt, but the smokey meat aroma is not there any more.
Loads of red fruit, tart cherries and ripe sweet cherries, raspberries, and some pomegranate. The mid-palate brings out smokey meat and a little cocoa, and more tartness to the red fruit, adding cranberry to the mix. This wine has some real Burgundian minerality, as well. The finish is long, tannins are very smooth, acidity offers years in the cellar.
This is very good wine. It might turn out to be great wine in eight years. if I had half a dozen, I would not open the next one for at least six years.
Have you ever noticed how a really mediocre bottle can be much better the second night? Sometimes a wine that is "closed" opens up from exposure to air. This is a great hint that the wine is really not as bad as you thought. It just needs more time in the cellar. Alternatively, something great falls completely flat in just a day - drink all you've got, because there's not much time left. Wine starts changing rapidly the moment you open it. So here, at "Two Days per Bottle Wine Tasting," I am going to follow wine from the moment I open it through a second night. Call it an experiment. Join me to see if it really tells us anything useful at all.
My wine review policy
There has been much ado in the blogosphere lately about "the ethics of wine blogging," particularly in the area of wine reviews. Should bloggers review every wine they are sent? Should they do so under a time limit? Some suggest we hew perfectly to the code of journalistic ethics, which forbid both promises. In my personal opinion, that is putting form before substance. Putting the form of the rule- don't promise reviews, ahead of the substance- do what is ethically best, creates a real perversion of the problem. First, and I am being completely honest here, I get a little thrill whenever somebody sends me wine. Why not? Heck, I love the stuff. So what if I (a) like getting free wine, and (b) don't promise reviews. That is easy. I only review the ones I like, out of fear of scaring people off. "Hey," I might say, "this sucks, but if I write that, nobody will send me wine any more." In other words, sticking to the journalists' "code of ethics" actually creates a LARGER ethical dilemma than reviewing everything. On the other hand, promising to review at a time certain takes editorial content away, so that is a promise I refuse to make.
Do you want me to review your wine? I would love to do so. But first, know what you are asking. Take a trip around the blog. See what The Little Wooden Guy, The Big Wooden Guy, and I have to say. We are not always generous or kind. And we WILL review your wine. Honestly. Every time.
If you are still interested, send it here:
David Honig 1 American Square, Suite 2000 Indianapolis, IN 46282
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