WINO 101

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to another Carpe Vinum Friday Flights Announcement and Notes of Impending Wine Sampling! I’m really excited about this one! We’re heading back to Spain again! It’s quickly becoming one of my favorite regions for wine, which might seem obvious considering how often we feature the Spanish wines in these Friday tastings. So to make the best of our time and tastings, maybe we should familiarize ourselves a bit more with Spanish wines past the “Hey! Spanish wines, in general, are really, really good!” phase and more into “Hey! Spain is a really big country with many different regions producing distinctly individual wines that deserve special attention! And they’re really, really good!” phase. So, to that point, we bring you: The Spanish Wine Series, Episode 1: Catalonia!

Catalonia is the far Northeast section of Spain, right along the Southern border of France on the Mediterranean. It is one of 17 autonomous communities of Spain with the region’s capital city being Barcelona. The region is also home to the city of Figueres, the birthplace of one of my favorite artists, surrealist Salvador Dali. (If you’ve noticed, my mousepad here at the shop is one of his paintings. Well, it’s a print of one of his paintings, adhered to a mousepad backing. . .not actually one of his paintings. That would be rude. And fairly impractical.)

The most highly esteemed of the Catalonian wines is the legendary Priorato. As the story goes, the region’s full name is Priorato de Scala Dei or Priory of the Stairway to God, named such by monks after a shepherd in the region saw angels coming down a ladder from heaven, some time in 1163 AD. And, indeed, the logo of Priorat that appears on the bottles has angels and a ladder on it. Ah, yes. . that’s the kind of interesting trivia that I like. How’s the wine? Divine! They’re Grenache and Carinena based wines, and the international acclaim of their quality is constantly driving the prices up. There are still a few holdouts of good value, though. I got one of those in the tasting, as well as a white Priorat, which I had never heard of before. Apparently it’s on par with white Chateauneuf du Pape, and that ranks pretty high in my book.

Just across the road from Priorat we find Montsant, which is an up-and-coming wine region that may soon rival the Priorat. Also being Grenache and Carinena based wines, they are of similar style as that of the Priorat, but perhaps with a bit more of a wild side. Not too far away from that we find another Catalunya wine we can’t forget: The legendary Cava region, the home of Spain’s sparkling wine. I think the weather has warmed up enough to be able to pour one of those, eh?

Not to cut it too short, but the rest are delicious as well. It’s a nice cross section of our first Spanish regional study. It’s tasty AND educational!

So Friday, April 28th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Spain’s Catalonia!!
Heretat Mas Tinnell NV Brut Reserva, Cava
Mas Marcal 2004 Catalunya Tinto, Terra Alta
Vall de Baldomar 2003 Costers del Segre
Cellar Els Guiamets 2003 Isis, Montsant
Scala Dei 2004 Negre, Priorat

Catalunya, Cataluna!!
Falset 2002 Laurona, Montsant
El Si del Moli 2004 Blanc, Priorat

A stellar deal at $10 for the First 5, $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours!
Hope to see you here!
Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting is the Italy’s Tuscany!

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

It’s that time again! It’s time to get excited about wine! And this is a great week for it, as this week for the Carpe Vinum Friday Flights we’re having the exquisite wines of the French Bordeaux! If you’re unfamiliar with the region, we seek to remedy that tomorrow with some stunning examples of the Bordeaux wines! But first, we need to know a bit about the region, eh?

To begin with, you don’t HAVE to like French wine to like wine, but to know anything about wine, you must know that virtually all wine out there has been based on the previous French model. For example, they call it a “Bordeaux-Style” if it’s a Cabernet and Merlot-based wine like they make in Bordeaux. A Pinot Noir or Chardonnay is often considered “Bergundian”. Most sparkling wines are done in the “Methode Champanoise”. Syrah and Grenache-based wines are considered “Rhone-Style”. Even the bottle shapes are named after the French regions that determined what worked best for the particular wines of the region: Standard narrow bottles are Bordeaux, wide ones Burgundy, tall and skinny ones Alsatian, and so on.

So consider that French wines are the model for all others in the world, and every general wine book starts with France. And is it any wonder why the French wine section of these books starts with Bordeaux? (I mean, it can’t be only the fact that Bordeaux comes alphabetically before Burgundy, can it? Well, maybe. . .) It is, however, one of the most highly-esteemed wine regions in the world, and one of the most expensive. Also, the wines that follow in its footsteps are also some of the most highly-esteemed (and thusly expensive) wines in the world.

This “Bordeaux-Style” which sets the example worldwide is the classic blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Carmenere, and Petit Verdot, all in varying amounts depending on the part of Bordeaux it’s from, and the Chateau that makes it. Quite honestly, I find that the Bordeaux wines have a certain finesse that its followers tend not to have, although, until I have the means and the desire to drop more than $50 on a single bottle of wine, I may never experience the best of either. (The best Bordeaux prices start at about $75 and top out at about $750 per bottle. Considering also that Bordeaux is also one of the best wines to cellar and will improve with age, the price just goes up from there.)

So, to make this tasting even more interesting, I chose one white Bordeaux, known for great balance and great value. For the reds, I chose a number of wines from around the Bordeaux region, but all from the 2003 vintage, considered the best vintage in decades. The 2003 wines are just being released around now, so this will be a great opportunity to see what remains in store for us.

Plus, and an extra-added bonus, I’m bringing in another sweet wine! It’s the legendary Sauternes. Just like how Bordeaux reds are the model for Cab/Merlots around the world, Sauternes is the model for late-harvest Botrytized sweet white wines. Noble Rot. Moldy grapes. It’s not as nasty as it sounds. . .although like most things, was probably discovered through either desperation or on a dare.

So Friday, April 21st, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

The Big Bordeaux!!
Chartron la Fleur 2004 Bordeaux Blanc
Chateau Segonzac 2003 Premiere Cotes de Blaye
Chateau la Paradis 2003 Cotes de Bourg
Chateau Dilhac 2003 Haut Medoc
Chateau Fontalem l’Auriolle 2003 Bordeaux Superieur

More Bordeaux!!
Chateau Larkis Jaumat 2003 Saint Emilion
Chateau l’Enclos Haut Mazeyres 2003 Pomerol

And a Wonderful Sauternes!!!
Chateau Castelnau de Suduiraut 2001 Sauternes

A stellar deal at $10 for the First 5, $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours, and $5 for the Sauternes!
Hope to see you here!
Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting is the Taste of Spain!

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

I can’t believe it’s Thursday already! And you know what that means! It’s time for The Carpe Vinum Weekly Newsletter of the Week for This Week, brought to you with extra redundancy! What are we tasting this week? It’s BIG REDS of California! They’re wines that really need no introduction, however, this newsletter needed one, so it suits a dual purpose.

So most of us are familiar with California. It takes up half of the West Coast, grows a lot of grapevines for wine, and has more Santas than the Mall of America in December! (Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Santa Monica, etc. . .) And most of us are more familiar with the California  wines than those of European origin, just due to the proximity of the place. However, we’ve also seen a lot of cheap, boring Cabernet, Chardonnay, and Merlot. The unholy trinity of blah. Everybody down there makes these three, and it can get a bit wearing.

Now on the other hand, there is still quite a lot of other, less overblown wines going on there to keep our interest. It’s still the primary place to find our old spicy Croatian friend, Zinfandel, and his French friend, and often partner-in-crime, Petite Sirah. These grape varieties have a handful of plantings in other parts of the world, but still the best examples are from California. It’s also a land of creativity, in regards to the wine industry, as well as being a place that attracts eccentrics. This can be a powerful combination when it comes to interesting varieties to plant, ways to blend things and, heck, even just the marketing. There’s always something to be said about an interesting label or name.

The first wine that caught my attention for this tasting was a wine made from the Carignane grape. Carignane is normally a blending grape in the French Southern Rhone. I don’t recall ever having a single-varietal Carignane wine, and the importance of its presence in the Rhone wines is understated, so I thought it would be a good idea to try it on its own. From there it’s all oldies but goodies: The essential Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, and a really nice Sangiovese, as well as a few really nice and interesting blends. And don’t miss that last one, which is Pazzo (meaning “Call me crazy”). It features a psychedelic-hypno-label that I couldn’t resist. I guess it’s the hypnotizing aspect of the label. It’s much better than “Cats!”

So Friday, April 14th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Big California Reds!!
Castle Rock 2004 Zinfandel, Sonoma
Pellegrini 2004 Carignane, Sonoma
Santa Barbara 2003 ZCS (Zinfandel, Carignane, Sangiovese), Santa Rita Hills
Barnwood 2004 Petite Sirah, Santa Barbara County
Tablas Creek 2003 Cotes de Tablas (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, Counoise), Paso Robles

Even More Even Bigger Even More Red Cali Reds!!
Seghesio 2003 Sangiovese, Alexander Valley
Bacio Divino 2003 Pazzo “Call Me Crazy” (Sangiovese, Cab, Perite Sirah, Viognier), Napa Valley

Next Friday tasting The Exquisite French Bordeaux!

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to The Quintessential Carpe Vinum Tasting Letter and News Alert! This week we’re heading way, way South from here, down to the wine megalith that is Argentina! Did you know that Argentina is the 5th largest wine producer in the world? It seems pretty impossible, considering that, logically, they should then have the 5th largest wine section in all stores. . or at least in imports. Why is that? I’m glad you asked!

Argentina is, yes, the 5th largest wine producer in the world. But the Argentine people are also one of the greatest wine DRINKERS in the world, and have been effectively hoarding away all of the wine themselves. I just read that the average Argentine consumes over 10 gallons of wine per person (down from a liver-pickling 26 gallons per person 30 years ago. Um.. .hm. . .yikes?!? FYI, the average for Americans is about 1-2 gallons per person.) This in mind, another thing to consider is the fact that the wine that they were mostly drinking wasn’t anything special but high-yield blended wine. Apparently not real tasteful.

Once the Argentine consumption declined, the wine industry down there started looking to export more of their products, however they had to increase the quality of their production to match the rest of the world. And that’s what we see up here: More modern vinification, internationally recognized grape varieties, and lower yields to produce better quality wines rather than tons and tons of mediocre plonk.

So all these changes are still taking place, and the selections coming from that area are producing stunning results. Now what seemed weird, that I mentioned last time, is that it was reported that Bonarda was the dominant grape variety down there, yet we had never heard of it up here. Barring any of the possible misinformation I receive all the time, it must have been those thirsty Argentines tapping their export supply. I was, however, able to track down one example of this wine to see what their big secret is about. They must know something. . .!

In other wine greats we see here in the States is the almost-exclusively-Argentine white wine Torrontes. It’s a light and sometimes-fruity white that, just recently, has been genetically identified as a cross between the Muscat of Alexandria (Muscat) and Criola Chica (a grape you’ve never heard of from the Canary Islands). It’s cool trivia to know, but unlikely to be a dollar-winning question on Jeopardy. Or answer, rather. Whatever.

Other than that, we’ve got stunning examples of other wines that have been doing spectacular there. Malbec, their flagship wine, most famous from the French Bordeaux and Cahors, takes on a life that is not paralleled anywhere else in the world. Also, I threw in a few Tempranillos, the Spanish varietal that they seem to be making their own, as well.

So Friday, April 7th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Argentina!!
Zolo 2005 Torrontes, Mendoza
Pascual Toso 2004 Malbec, Mendoza
Mapema 2004 Tempranillo, Mendoza
La Posta del Vinatero 2003 Bonarda, Mendoza
Melipal 2003 Malbec, Mendoza

Argentine!!
Achaval Ferrer 2004 Malbec, Mendoza
Familia Zuccardi 2002 Q Tempranillo, Mendoza

And The Triumphant Return of the Lovely, Sweet Dessert Pour!
Santa Julia 2004 Tardio (Late Harvest Torrontes), Mendoza

If you notice they’re all from Mendoza, that’s because it’s the region of Argentina that accounts for over 70% of the wine grown in the region, and probably the majority of wine exported.

A stellar deal at $10 for the First 5, $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours, and $5 for the Sweet Pour!
Hope to see you here!
Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting Big California Reds!

M