WINO 101

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to the tasting notes of the Carpe Vinum Friday Tasting Notes and Notification of the Friday Tasting Notation! As you might notice, we’re tasting Zinfandels this week! For those of you new to wine or new to Zinfandel or new to the newsletter, Zin is a powerful, juicy and spicy wine. It’s got a cult following with the organization of ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates and Producers) and considering it’s almost exclusively grown in California, most people consider it an American grape. Truthfully, it came from the Dalmatian Coast in Croatia long, long ago, but other than the Italian version (Primitivo), it’s really an American thing.

Ah, Zinfandel! This is the wine that really lured me into the wine world. It’s the super-powered juice that was the siren call that I couldn’t resist. I mean, when I started I had dabbled in a few Rieslings and a Pinot Noir or two, and been thoroughly appalled by some really unpleasant Chianti (The kinds with the raffia-wrapped bottles. You know the stuff. You gotta get those cool wine-bottle-candleholders somehow.) At any rate, once I got into the Zinfandel, it was like a light going off in my head. Or going on. How’s that cliché go? On? Off? Nobody’s home? Ah, whatever.

In the last few years I’d been disappointed in the whole Zinfandel market, mostly in regards to the price. I watched in horror as the prices of my favorite Zins, vintage by vintage, went up by $2 - $3 per year. That $10 Zin that I used to get back in my days at the distributor? After a few good reviews form the wine “Professionals”, now it’s selling at $22. It’s a pretty common story, really.

To quell my frustration at these price points, this week I made a list of all the Zinfandel available in town. Well . . . I excluded the ones that came as a bag-in-a-box, or were the branded and under-$5 variety and the ones that were “white”. And I have to say, there really are quite a few out there. I counted about 300 different Zins that are available to us, here in town. I did recognize quite a few names of wineries that used to be affordable but were now not-so-much-anymore. That, again, made me sad. But realized a good point. There will always be a good source of quality Zinfandel at a reasonable price. The question is finding it before the wine reviewers do. Once they tell everyone what you already know, then it’s generally sold out. Another good point is knowing when to move on from the was-$20-is-now-$30 Zin to the next-big-thing-Zin.

Of course, after touring through 300 Zins and finding a whole Zinload of candidates, trimming the choices down was a difficult task. I found a couple new ones, the Karly and Rutherford Ranch. I also found a few of old favorites I hadn’t seen in town for a while, the Blockheadia Ringnosii, Cosentino and UNTI. I grabbed the Peterson because that seems to me the next likely candidate for the new cult Zin. Then we have the unabashed plug for the Oregon wine industry with The Pines Zinfandel. I mean, since we have a Zin, why can’t we pat ourselves on the back about it, right? Zin lovers everywhere unite!

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

Zinfandel!!!
Karly 2005 Pokerville Zinfandel, Amador County
Rutherford Ranch 2005 Zinfandel, Napa Valley
Blockheadia Ringnosii 2004 Zinfandel, Napa Valley
Cosentino 2005 Cigar Zin, California
Peterson 2004 Dry Creek Valley

Zin Zin!!!
UNTI 2005 Dry Creek Estate Zinfandel
The Pines 2005 Zinfandel, Columbia Gorge, Oregon

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 Super Tuscany!

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Is it Thursday already? It must be, yesterday being Wednesday, and all, and tomorrow being Friday and The Carpe Vinum Primer on the Wines of Argentina! And this, dear friends, is the Newsletter to Which the Announcement is Being Made! It’s an exciting week, what with the Argentine wine we’re pouring. Argentina has great quantities of great wines they’re producing down there, and the values are still to be had. I’ve seen the quality increasing over the years from the “wines-I’d-only-feature-with-other-South-American-countries” category to the “I’m-totally-ignoring-you-now-Chile” category. Let’s explore, shall we?

Argentina! I always thought the name of the country, considering it has the word “Argent” in it, that it translates to being a country of riches. That’s not far from the truth, as early explorers discovered great quantities of silver there. I’m sure the natives were just saying “What . . . ? This shiny stuff? Eh, it’s good for making jewelry, decking out your rims for a sweet ride or creating some wicked fronts for your teeth.” and the Europeans were saying “Say, could we borrow some of that to show the mother country?” and named the land Tierra Argentina, or “Land of Silver”. I’m sure nothing bad happened as a result of the natives sharing those riches. But I’m no History buff, as we all know. So let’s move on to the wine!

The wine in Argentina has been grown there ever since those aforementioned Europeans had landed there almost 500 years ago. Since then the country has always been a major grower, if only for the domestic Argentine market. After all, Argentina has always had one of the largest wine-drinking populations in the world. I’ve seen differing statistics of exactly how much that is, but it’s well over the wine we drink per capita in The States. But even that considered, the major push in the Argentine wine industry was really just the last 10 years, or so. And growing.

To know the Argentine wine, one must know the Malbec. It’s a grape variety blended in the French Bordeaux and worldwide in similar blends, as well as the primary grape in Southwest France’s Cahors region. Worldwide it has been downplayed as a single varietal, yet the Argentineans have made Malbec into a wine that has more power than many thought possible. In this way they’ve made it their own. Truthfully, I’ve very seldom had Malbec from outside Argentina that achieves the same power, complexity, beauty and finesse.

That considered, Malbec is the most-widely planted grape variety in Argentina. A couple years ago I read that Bonarda was the top-grown grape in Argentina, which had me confused and also wrongfully spreading that rumor. I haven’t since been able to find that article or any other indication that it was ever true. The upshot of that, as a lover of obscure wines, it interested me in the Bonarda, as well as other grape varieties in the region. We can so easily get lost in the sea of Malbec that is sent our way, but we shouldn’t miss out on all the other treasures the region has to offer . . . I mean, besides the silver.

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

Argentina!!!
Gougenheim 2006 Tempranillo
Lurton 2006 Bonarda
Crios de Susana Balbo 2005 Syrah/Bonarda
Dona Paula 2005 Syrah/Malbec
La Posta del Vinatero 2005 Malbec

And Two More From the Land of Silver!!!
Tikal 2005 Patriota (Bonarda/Malbec)
Achaval Ferrer 2005 Malbec

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 Zinfandel!

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Hey! It’s time for the Carpe Vinum Newsletter and Tasting Announcement! This time it’s New and Improved Without the Long Sprawling Nonsensical Superfluously Worded Title! . . . Or Is it? So here we are in mid-September, our supposed long, drawn-out, going-to-be-sunny-for-quite-a-few-more-weeks predictions aren’t really coming true, and all of our tomatoes at home are somewhere between a greenish-orange and an orangish-green. And, yes, those are the ones that are supposed to be red. At least this dark cloud overhead makes my mind turn from the summery whites back to the nice reds of fall. And I know the best place to start. Spain! This week it’s Spain’s Catalunya!

Catalunya is the Northeastern part of Spain that features Spain’s second-largest city of Barcelona, birthed one of Spain’s best surrealist artists with Salvador Dali, and provides us with many different kinds of the world’s favorite wines. One important thing to remember about Catalunya is that it’s not necessarily Spain, per se. It is one of the autonomous regions of Spain, gaining independence in 1977. The Catalan people probably wouldn’t call themselves Spanish. Nor would they call themselves French, even considering there are Catalan people in the French Roussillon, just over the border (and the Pyrenees). I won’t turn this into a History lesson, I make these newsletters too long, as it is. Long History short — hundreds of years, battle for power, yada yada, here we are today. They’re Catalan.

But the wine! There is really quite a lot going on in the region wine-wise. The easiest way to get at these tasty gems is to focus on certain regions that are readily available. First and foremost, we’ve gotta mention the Cava. Many consider this the world’s favorite sparkling wine, at least for the masses. The wines are pleasant and the cost is unbeatable. They’re made in the traditional Champagne method, sometimes with the traditional Chardonnay, yet often with regional Xarel.lo, Perellada and Macabeo.

Another of the primary and noteworthy regions is Priorato, a hilly area within the Tarragona region of Catalunya. It takes its name from the old monastery “Priorato de Scala Dei”, directly translated to the “Priory of the Stairway of God” and loosely translated to “The Houses of the Holy to the Stairway to Heaven”. And yes, the wines there truly do rock. In fact, the soil is rocky, too. The Garnacha and/or Carinena-based wines have been favorites of critics in recent years, giving the region local rockstar status.

Montsant is the region that would be groveling at the feet of these rockstars, literally if not figuratively. Priorato is the hilly region, and Montsant is the lowland region around the base of this hilly area. The wines are similar to those of its neighbor, also using the Garnacha and Carinena. I wouldn’t put the wines in a category below those of Priorat. Both make some spectacular juice, but I feel Montsant is making it more consistently good, and at a lower cost.

Then there are islands. Okay, technically the Balearic Islands are not part of Catalunya. They are just to the South in the Mediterranean, and also consider themselves Catalan and speak a dialect of Catalan called Mallorquin, so this is the tasting where it’s most appropriate to put them. I mean, there isn’t very much wine we see coming out of there, so what little we find we have to fit into one of these tastings. I don’t know much about the wines from this region, but the one we’ve got here is made with Callet, Mantonegre-Fogoneu and Syrah. I’ve heard of Syrah. My wine-geek senses are tingling.

So what’s left? There are quite a few regions that we’re not touching on since there weren’t enough examples available here in town. The only region we’ve got that we haven’t mentioned here is Terra Alta, and there isn’t a whole lot of information about them available. Most books state it as “potential rival to Priorat . . . someday”. So we’ve got a Cava, a general Catalunya wine, a wine from Terra Alta, one from Priorat, one from the Islands, and two from Montsant. It’s going to be good. Oh, yes. It’s going to be good.

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

Spain’s Catalunya!!!
1 + 1 = 3 NV Brut, Cava
Mas Marcal 2005 Tinto, Catalunya
Falset Marca 2005 Tinto, Montsant
Cellar Vinos Pinol 2005 Ludovicus, Terra Alta
Vinicola del Priorat 2004 Mas del Frares, Priorat

And Two More!!!
Acustic 2004 Brao, Montsant
Anima Negra 2004 AN-2, Illes Balears (Maillorca)

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 Argentina!

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to the Best Thursday of the Week! Being that there is only one Thursday per week, that automatically makes this the best right? And Thursday is always good because it brings you the Carpe Vinum Thursday Newsletter of the Week and the Tasting Announcement of the Week for the Friday Which Is Generally the Best Day of the Week For Various Reasons! For this week’s tasting, I’m making good on a promise from a month ago to feature all wines from Austria! Austrian wine is now coming into its own after a rather dodgy past, but I think it’s safe to say that this one is going to be spectacular. As a region I heretofore knew relatively little, after doing a bit of research, I think it’s definitely one of the more exciting revitalized wine regions in Europe.

Until now I had been in the habit of combining the tastings of German wines with those of Austria. Last month while preparing to do that, I realized that although Austria has similar wine laws to Germany, and although everyone else seems to lump the two together, they are really nothing alike. Germany is farther North, and the wines reflect the colder continental climate with a lot of Riesling. Austria shares a bit of this with Germany, as they do have a few Rieslings, but it shares more in common with its other neighbors of Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic. In fact, considering the Austrian wine region is all in the Eastern part of the country, the proximity is nowhere near the German wine regions. But as I’ve never seen any wines from the other Eastern European countries, we don’t have much available for comparison.

Austria has been slowly recovering from some bad press 22 years ago in 1985. It was The Antifreeze Scandal! Remember The Simpsons Episode 7G13 “The Crepes of Wrath” where Bart goes to France and miraculously learns French in two weeks and uncovers some unruly winemakers adding antifreeze to the wines to “give it more kick”? Well, it wasn’t really like that . . . although I bet the writers were giving a nod to the real events.

Now before you panic like everyone did in 1985 in thinking that the Austrians are adding antifreeze to wines, know that it was a misunderstanding. There were a few winemakers that were adding Diethylene Glycol, basically sugar, to the wines to give them more body. Many people in the press confused it with Ethylene Glycol which is antifreeze. Diethylene Glycol, as a sugary liquid, is mostly harmless. But, hey . . . the practice was still illegal. The bad press combined with the misunderstanding of chemical compounds, the damage had been done and the Austrian wine sales dropped by about 80%.

That incident, although disastrous for the economics of the Austrian wine industry at the time, was really what made Austrian wine so much better right now. The Austrian wine laws are now the strictest in the world. But also the effect was felt on the overall quality of the wines. Rather than focusing on the high-yield bulk sweeter wines, the dry red and white wines of higher quality and lower-yields are now reigning.

To know Austrian wine is to know the Gruner Veltliner grape, a white grape indigenous to Eastern Europe. Austria has made that its flagship grape and about a third of the production in Austria is dedicated to it. I’ve recently fallen in love with the wines made from this grape, but the styles seem to range so much that I thought it would be a good idea to try a number of them together to get a better idea of the nature of this wine. There are other white wines in the area: Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay, Muller Thurgau and others, but we only have so much space, right? And we need room for red!

So being situated farther South than much of winegrowing-Europe, reds do well here. Again, like the Gruner Veltliner, I’m really interested in the native varietals seldom seen elsewhere. The main three are the Saint Laurent and the Blaufrankisch, and the hybrid between the two, Zweigelt. We know Blaufrankisch in the US as Lemberger, not to be confused with the stinky cheese Limburger. Heck, most of us only know the stinky cheese from cartoons, anyway. Maybe it’s good. I’ve never tried it, but I have had some really stinky French cheese . . . the kind that you can still smell through the fridge door, even though it’s wrapped in three layers of plastic wrap and encased in a kryptonite food-storage box. Wait, where was I? Ah. Lemberger is Blaufrankisch. It is a medium-bodied red wine that still has a sturdy tannin structure. Zweigelt is a bit fruitier and spicier, and as Saint Laurent is fairly rare, I’ve never had it on its own. Which is what brings us to the tasting tomorrow.

We’ve got three Gruner Veltliner, each from a different Austrian growing region, chosen to better know the characteristics of this fine white wine. And also to enjoy the final warm throes of the . . . (sigh) . . . end of summer. In the red category I’ve made sure to include one each of Blaufrankisch, Zweigelt and Saint Laurent, and then a blend of all three. I really excited about this one. New and interesting is always exciting. Especially when it’s a comeback. The Great Austrian Comeback!

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

Austria!!!
Hirsh 2005 Gruner Veltliner Heililgenstrin, Kamptal
Familie Nigl 2005 Gruner Veltliner Kremser Freiheit, Kremstal
Heinrich 2006 RED (Zweigelt, Blaufrankisch, Saint Laurent), Neusiedlersee
Umathum 2005 Zweigelt, Neusiedlersee
Zantho 2005 Blaufrankisch, Neusiedlersee

More Austria!!!
Knoll 2006 Gruner Veltliner Federspiel Kreutles, Wachau
Glatzer 2003 Saint Laurent Altenberg, Carnuntum

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 Spain’s Catalunya: Penedes, Priorat, Cava, Montsant and maybe Maillorca!

M