WINO 101

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to the next installment of the Carpe Vinum Friday Tasting Notes Delivered On Thursday In the Form of a Newsletter! This being the newsletter in question, here comes the theme for the week’s tasting. Are you ready for this? It’s Pinot! Pinot! Pinot! When you read that you should be saying it in a high voice while using your fingers as makeshift pistols. The wine gunslinger “Pinot! Pinot! Pinot!”. Why the sudden penchant for violence? Because it’s the Pinot Noir Shootout! It’s time for the showdown. This town ain’t big enough for all this Pinot, so I reckon we best be on our way to figure out who stays and who goes. And just whose side we’re on. Ya reckon? I reckon so.

There are many wines in the world, but there are few that emote the same sensuality that the Pinot Noir does. It is a delicate and finicky grape that can be grown everywhere except where it is terribly warm yet takes careful vineyard management and a delicate hand in the winery to produce this bottled art. It blooms early so it is prone to frost. It is particularly susceptible to all of the grapevine diseases. Fermentation tends to be problematic, and it can end up fermenting too quickly, and apparently boiling over. Also the skins are thin, so achieving color to the wine can also pose some problems. Also, the grape variety itself is prone to mutation. We’ve got Pinot Gris, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Blanc to prove that. But on top of that, there are 46 recognized clones in Burgundy alone, and the possibility of up to a thousand more worldwide, which can lead to some unpredictable results. I think I’m starting to see why it costs so much.

Pinot Noir does better in somewhat cooler climates. It’s planted in almost every grape-growing region worldwide, but has a special place in a few different wine regions. Of course, it all starts in Burgundy. There is some indication that the Pinot Noir had been cultivated in Burgundy as long ago as the Fourth Century, and the Romans knew of it in the First Century. Even still, the Burgundy tends to be the benchmark for Pinot Noir production as they’ve been making elegant wines there for centuries.

There have been a few up-and-comers recently that have challenged Burgundy’s claim to supremacy. Oregon, our own backyard vineyard, has been making some spectacular Pinots for almost the last 40 years. Sure that seems like nothing compared to 16 centuries of vine growth, but you have to start somewhere, right? Then we’ve got California. They have been producing Pinots down there for quite a few years and, if I remember correctly, have more acres planted to Pinot that Oregon does. Not that we won’t catch up, right?

From there we hear the buzz across the Pacific about the burgeoning Pinot scene in New Zealand. The climate is very similar to Oregon, and often winemakers there and winemakers here will trade off to work on each others’ harvests, considering the seasons are staggered. Also, not far from New Zealand (in the grand scheme of things) we have Australia. Most of the Aussie continent is too warm for growing Pinot of any complexity, but there is that island of Tasmania to the south that has apparently been doing Pinot quite well. Also, at least from the perspective of the tasting tomorrow, there’s Chile. I hadn’t really heard much about Chilean Pinot Noir, as most of the plantings down there are dedicated to other varieties. I’ve heard some good things about this one I found, so we’ll see how it rates against the rest of the world. In the shootout. At the showdown. Maybe we’ll find that this town is big enough after all.

So Friday, October 19th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Pinots of the World!!!
Cono Sur 2007 Pinot Noir, Valle Central, Chile
Tamar Ridge 2006 “Devil’s Corner” Pinot Noir, Tasmania, Australia
Hunter’s 2004 Pinot Noir, Marlborough, New Zealand
Saintsbury 2006 Pinot Noir “Garnet”, Carneros, California
Kudos 2005 Pinot Noir, Oregon

Pinot!!! Pinot!!! Pinot!!!
Adelsheim 2006 Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Francois Gay 2005 Chorey les Beaune, Bourgogne, France

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 Spoooky Halloween Tasting!

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

It’s that time once again! It’s time to prepare for the wondrous sensual journey through the world of wine with the Carpe Vinum Friday Tasting Announcement and Newsletter That Brings You Such Information and Much, Much More! For the tasting this week, we’re having a visit from seven fine examples of one of my favorite wines. It’s wines from around the world made with Cabernet Franc! This often overlooked grape plays a vital role in many of the wines we see every day, yet when featured alone can make a wine that can rock your socks off. Are you wearing socks? Well, then let’s rock!

“What is a Cabernet Franc?” You may ask. “I’ve heard of a Cabernet Sauvignon. Are the two somehow related?”

“Well,” I may respond, “That is a very good observation. Gold stars for everyone!”

“Huh?” You may inquire. “What the hell are you talking about? Who said anything about gold sta-”

“But wait!” I may interject, interrupting your very valid statement, “This is an awful fictional dialogue. Let’s get back to the point.”

Cabernet Franc is indeed related to the noble Cabernet Sauvignon. In fact, it’s dear-old-dad. And Cab Sauv’s mum is Sauvignon Blanc. That’s right. The white grape. All three play important roles in the French Bordeaux alongside Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec and the mostly-forgotten Carmenere. This French Bordeaux is the model for many of the most highly-esteemed wines in the world. In Bordeaux the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot usually take on the most forward roles and our beloved Cabernet Franc takes more of a back seat in blending with many of these wines. Cabernet Franc does take a more forward role in several Bordeaux districts, the most notably Cheval Blanc.

In many wine regions the grape is grown primarily for the purpose in blending for Bordeaux-styled wines, as it adds a note of complexity and fragrance to the mix. However, due to the grape’s early blooming and early-ripening properties, it lends itself toward colder climates, such as in the inland French countryside in the Loire, and in our own Washington where it winters better than some varieties. Also because of this fact Cabernet Franc is the grape of choice in the Northeastern US wine regions, namely New York and Virginia. We wouldn’t know those wines out here, though, because of this country’s absurd wine shipping regulations. More about that another time.

So in my love affair with this grape, I’ve been sampling as many Cabernet Franc wines as I can, jumping at every opportunity, as those opportunities can be rare. We’ve been seeing quite a few really good examples coming out of Washington, and they remain some of my favorite. We see a few coming out of California, mostly as wine houses there bottle the Franc normally used to blend with their other wines. But when it comes to a wine region embracing this fine grape, no one does it like the French Loire. Cabernet Franc is the primary red grape of the region making up the wines of Chinon, Saumur-Champigny and Bourgueil, among others. Recent developments in the region have been allowing the grapes to more fully ripen than in previous vintages producing some spectacular results and several of my favorite wines.

So this is one of my favorite tasting themes. I find it a bit confounding why most of the Cabernet Franc in the world is just used to blend (usually overpriced) Bordeaux-styled wines when the Franc has so much going on by itself. It can have power, yet finesse. It can have fruit and earth and herbs and spices. It can softly caress the palate or reach out of the glass and punch you in the nose. (Not literally). And as I stated before, it can rock your socks off, or it can . . . uh . . . smooth-jazz your socks off.

So we’ve put together here a selection from around the world. One from Italy’s Friuli, two from California, two from the French Loire, one from Oregon and one from Washington. This is not one to be missed. Come enjoy The Franc!

So Friday, October 12th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Cabernet Franc!!!
Dorigo 2005 Cabernet Franc, Friuli, Italy
Yorkville Cellars 2004 Cabernet Franc, Mendocino County, California *Organic!*
Grochau Cellars 2005 Cabernet Franc, Columbia Valley, Washington
Cosentino 2005 The Franc, California
Domaines des Pentes 2004 Chinon, Loire, France

Franc . . . Cabernet Franc!!!
Domaine des Roches Neuves 2005 “Terres Chaudes” Saumur-Champigny, Loire, France
Spangler 2005 Cabernet Franc, Southern 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 Pinot Noir Shootout!

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

It’s not a bird! It’s not a plane! It’s not a Chianti or a Brunello! It’s Super-Tuscan! That old clichéd introduction can only mean one thing. It’s time for the Super-Powered, Able-To-Write-Faster-Than-A-Speeding-Bullet Carpe Vinum Newsletter Announcing the Single-Building-Bounding Friday Tasting! This week in our dear Metropolis we’re tasting not any mere mortal wines from Tuscany, we’re tasting the SUPER wines from Tuscany. The Super-Tuscans! And, no, I’m not just making up the term for the sake of having an angle to write about the stuff. Sure, the wines may be “super” as in “super-tasty” or “super-strong”, but technically these wines are considered “Super Tuscan” by definition. Let’s learn more!

Tuscany! It’s located in West-Central Italy. It’s home to the ever-so-popular wines of Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. All these wines, as well as most of the reds in the region, are dominated by the Sangiovese grape. The way the wine labeling laws in Italy work don’t allow much diversion from the Sangiovese-based wines. For example, Chianti must be mostly Sangiovese, but can be blended Caniaolo, Trebbiano or Malvasia, the last two which are white grapes, oddly.

Years ago some winemakers in the region were experimenting with blends of the Sangiovese and other grape varieties, usually of French origin, like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah. These blends, by the Italian wine laws had to be classified as simple “table wine”, even though many were made by top-tier wineries. So a new law was invented to incorporate these wines as a step between the simple table wines and the full-fledged DoC wines of designated regions. The designation is IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica), and it’s used in all Italian regions, not just Tuscany. However Tuscany seems to be the only place where the IGT reds (not the whites) are considered “super”. Why “super”, and who coined the phrase? Don’t know.

So these Super-Tuscans can be blends of Sangiovese with other varieties or single-varieties of just about anything. The most prestigious ones tend to be Sangiovese-Cabernet blends, or sometimes just Cabernet Sauvignon, as in the Sassicaia, one of the first Super-Tuscans. Many of the Italian winemakers are taking advantage of this wine designation, and it’s become one of the most popular categories of the region. One aspect that I like is that these distinct and original blends also are generally given their own names, a little sense of identity in a sea of Chianti.

So here we are. Super Tuscans! They can’t repel bullets. They can’t shoot laser beams out of their eyes, or couldn’t even if they had eyes. They’re not faster than a speeding train. They can’t fly without any outside help, and even then the “flying” is really “falling” after being thrown, destined not to end well. And finally, they can’t fight crime, unless that crime in question is serving bad wine. In that case, and in all other cases they truly are “super”. Now if only I can get that little cape to stay on . . .

So Friday, October 5th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Super-Tuscany!!!
Castello di Farnetella 2004 Lucilla (Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot)
Sanguineti 2004 Nessun Dorma (Sangiovese, Merlot, Syrah)
Mocali 2004 Fosseti (Sangiovese, Canaiolo)
Petrognano 2004 Pomino (Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot)
Aia Vecchia 2004 Lagone (Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Sangiovese)

Super Tuscan!!!
Ruffino 2004 Modus (Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot)
Giusti & Zanza 2004 Dulcamara (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot)

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 Cabernet Franc and the World!

M

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

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to the Super Summer Sipping, Slurping, and Swigging Spectacular! Or so I stated it seven sunrises and sunsets, since. (Last week). And so it stands still! Seven superb s— . . . stop me! I just can’t keep up this alliteration. Okay. It’s the Carpe Vinum Tasting of the Week and Newsletter! As stated earlier, it’s a summery wine symposium! So it seems summer has certainly surfaced, supposing September sees such sweltering subsisting. Ack! I did it again! It gets addictive, such language. But I digressss.

Tomorrow’s wines are a selection of many of the best white wines I’ve had all summer. These are all wines I’ve tried throughout the summer. Some are best performers during the tastings. Some were crowd favorites. Some were wines that I thought needed further attention. But all of these were the ones that came home with me most often during these, the hottest days of summer.

Starting the selection is the Sanguineti Vincero Toscana Bianco, a wonderful Italian white I had special ordered about 8 months ago. It’s made with Malvasia, Vermintino and Chardonnay. That’s right. I used the “C” word there. You can’t base the wine on that one grape. Have you ever heard of the other two? Didn’t think so. This one has not been featured in a tasting this summer, but it’s about time it has. This may be my favorite of this year.

Secondly we’ve got the Woodinville Sauvignon Blanc. It was featured during the last Washington tasting back in July. I compared it side-by-side with a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand and a Menetou Salon from the French Loire. The Woodinville reigned as my favorite of the bunch as well as many Sauvignon Blancs in recent memory. The region where the winery is located is Woodinville, an area near Seattle that appears to be a new haven for wineries, and a place to keep watching.

Next we’ve got my favorite Soave from Inama. Many agree that this is the finest Soave house in the Italian Veneto. Someday we may have to have a Soave shootout, perhaps a blind tasting. Until then, we can take their word for it. Who is “they” in that statement? “They” in that statement is the “Many” from the statement before it. You know . . . because that’s what “they” say, right?

I’ll sum up the next three into one paragraph so I don’t ramble on all night. We’ve got three wines made with grape varieties from the French Rhone. These make full-bodied whites, often with bodacious, fruity character; tropical fruit, spice, cream. There are two, the Cline from Carneros in California and the Torbreck from Australia’s Barossa Valley, made with the lovely Marsanne and Roussanne grapes, a magical pairing known well for centuries in the Northern Rhone. Then we have one of my favorite whites from the Southern Rhone, Domaine Lafond’s Lirac Blanc, made with Roussanne, Viognier and Grenache Blanc.

Finishing the lineup is one from the home country. And it’s a celebratory wine. With bubbles! It’s Argyle’s 1999 Blanc de Blancs, potentially one of the best I’ve had from that house and one of the best bubblies I’ve had from Oregon. I figure popping the top off a bubbly, frothy sparkler is the perfect conclusion to the final tasting of the summer. What?!? The end of summer, already? Well, it may not be the end of the heat, but the “calendar” summer technically does end with Labor Day, doesn’t it? Dang.

So Friday, August 31st, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Super Summery Sipping Symposium!!!
Sanguineti 2006 Vincero Toscano Bianco, Tuscany, Italy
Woodinville 2006 Sauvignon Blanc, Columbia Valley, Washington
Inama 2005 Soave Foscarino, Veneto, Italy
Cline 2006 Marsanne/Roussanne, Carneros, California
Domaine Lafond 2005 Lirac Blanc, Rhone Valley, France

Simply Superlative Sipping Spectacular!!!
Torbreck 2006 Marsanne/Roussanne, Barossa Valley, Australia
Argyle 1999 Blanc de Blancs, Dundee Hills, 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 Austria!

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

It’s time! You know what time? It’s Thursday! Is “Thursday” really a time? Well, maybe it’s a broad sense of a period of time. But Thursday it is, and that means it’s time for the Carpe Vinum Newsletter of the Week Time, and High Time to Take the Time to Announce the Tasting of the Week! And it’s just in time. What are we tasting this time? Get ready for this, because it’s always a good time: It’s the Wines of Oregon (time)!

We live in Oregon. Well, no . . . not necessarily you, given the international audience we’ve got for these weekly ramblings. By “we” I mean “me”, the party of one, here at the shop. Well, most of you on this list do actually live in Oregon, but let me get back on track here. I’m proud to be living in Oregon. We’ve got all kinds of things: Mountains, rivers, oceanfront property, a basketball team, dry and arid desert scrubbrush, squishy and mossy rainforests, salmon, hippies, hipsters, hippopotamuses, hip-boot-waders, hip-hip-hooray, hippidy-doo-dah, and so on. Also . . . We’ve got wine.

Apparently every state in the country makes wine of some sort. Some states are better suited for the grape-growing than others, and other states make wine from other fruits that grow where grapes can’t. That being said, I think we could rate Oregon wines within the top 3 states of a hotly contested race of best-wine-states, but when it comes to Pinot Noir, we got it goin’ on. Every year the Oregon Pinot Noir gets more recognition around the world, and the number of wineries seems to increase exponentially. It’s like the Pinot Noir Gold Rush. We call it “Purple Gold”! (Okay, nobody calls it that . . . but let’s hope it catches on.)

Now, Pinot love aside, there is a lot more growing in Oregon than just the “Purple Gold”. That seems to be the majority of what we hear about, and that makes sense. The wineries know which side their bread is buttered on, to follow that old cliché. But if you butter your bread on ALL sides, you . . . uh, you get your hands all greasy. Wait, where was I going with that? Ah. It makes sense to hype the breadwinner (or butterer), but we’ve got a lot more to offer than Pinot Noir, and a lot more affordable things too.

So I’ve pieced together a diverse selection of Oregon varieties. There are so many new and interesting things going on in the Oregon winemaking field that a tasting every day of the year wouldn’t cover it all. So we do what little we can, and enjoy it as best as possible! In the lineup we’ve got an Auxerrois (aw-sher-wah), a grape variety you might remember from the Alsace tasting last week. It’s rare and delicious. We’ve got the Oregon resident veterans of Riesling and Pinot Gris, both summery and refreshing. We’ve got a rose of Tempranillo from Southern Oregon, and a red blend from the Columbia Valley.

Then we have two of the quintessential Pinot Noir. The first is the whole-cluster fermented Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley Vineyards. Whole-cluster fermentation, a method they use in Beaujolais, is the carbonic maceration method where grapes are not crushed but fermented while inside the skins. This creates lighter and fruitier flavors and aromas. Then we have your regular super-charged-take-on-the-whole-world Pinot Noir from Erath, one of Oregon’s winemaking pioneers, growing and squashing grapes for almost 40 years. It’s the full spectrum set for the sampling!

So Friday, August 24th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Oregon!!!
Adelsheim 2006 Auxerrois, Willamette Valley
Anam Cara 2006 Riesling, Nicholas Estate, Willamette Valley
Roots 2006 Pinot Gris, Yamhill-Carlton
Abacela 2006 Rosado of Tempranillo, Estate Grown, Umpqua Valley
Willamette Valley Vineyards 2006 Whole Cluster Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley

M’Oregon!!!
Erath 2005 Estate Selection Pinot Noir, Dundee Hills
Sineann 2005 Red Blend, Columbia Valley

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 Summer Sipping, Slurping, and Swigging Spectacular!

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to the Mid-August Stretch and Summer Savoring and Sampling Symposium with the Weekly Carpe Vinum Friday Tasting and Newsletter of Super-Tastiness! Last week we were in Germany sampling the fine wines they have to offer, and this week we’re not going too far from that. We’re heading to the French Alsace! It’s the most French part of Germany! Or is it the most Germanic part of France?

Alsace has always been a disputed part of Europe. The region, on France’s Eastern border with Germany, has been a veritable tug-o-war between the two countries for centuries. Every time a war breaks out, the region gets captured, and then returned at the end of the war. As a result of this constant dispute, the people of Alsace are technically neither French nor German, and they speak Alsacien, a dialect that is neither French nor German, but a bit of both. And the wines? Yep. They’re specifically Alsatian as well.

Unlike most of the other French wines which are named and labeled after the regions in which they are grown, Alsace is one of the only French regions that state the grape variety names on the labels. In fact, most of the wine marketed in Alsace are single-varietal wines. For that reason, Alsatian wines are more easily understood of any of the French wines as the labeling resembles more closely the wines of the New World.

So of these grape varieties grown, most are white. There is only one red in the region. It’s the current rising star of the world, even still reeling from some independent movie a couple of years ago. Yep. Pinot Noir. Our savory savior. There’s not much of it grown there and, like everywhere else in the world, they’re highly sought-after and therefore awfully expensive. Are Alsatian Pinots good? Apparently so, considering I’ve never been able to afford one. The other varieties are Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Sylvaner, Muscat, Gewurztraminer, Auxerrois, Chasselas (mostly used in blending) and Klevener de Heilingenstein (which apparently exists, but we’d all be pretty hard-pressed to prove it).

From there we’ve got a couple other things of note. There’s Cremant d’Alsace, which is the sparkling wine of the region that I find to be more pleasant and more affordable than Champagne and most other sparkling wines. Also, considering the colder climate up there in Alsace, there are a number of dessert wines designated “Vendage Tardive”. That literally translates to “Late Harvest” and is one of my favorite wine terms, just by the way it sounds. Vendage Tardive. Sounds like a good name for a band. But I digress.

Then there are the Grand Cru wines from the best locations in Alsace. These wines work like the regular single-varietal wines, but all come from specific locales and/or vineyards and the labels carry these names, as well. These wines are pretty limited quantity, and highly sought-after, so they’re hard to find and pretty expensive, at that. For the purposes of this tasting, we’ll be taking a tour through many common varieties of the Alsatian varieties. One thing for sure, though, is they’re all perfect summer wines, and my favorite for this time of year.

Also: Art Opening! That’s right! We’ve got new art on the walls here at Carpe Vinum. I always seem to forget to mention it when it happens, but not this time! We’ve got the photographic art of Rachell Coe. It’s potentially the most appropriate art showing we’ve had in here, as the subject matter is expertly and delightfully well-done photos of grapes and vineyards. You will love the show if you like and appreciate wine, and I imagine you do considering you’re on a wine newsletter list. The demographic is right, hey?

So Friday, August 17th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Alsace!!!
Sparr NV Cremant d’Alsace
Kuentz Bas 2004 Alsace Blanc
Domaine Rolly Gassmann 2004 Sylvanner
Maison Bott Freres 2004 Pinot Blanc
Dopff Irion 2004 Tokay Pinot Gris

Mor’Alsace!!!
Andre Kientzler 2004 Auxerrois “K”
M Deiss 2001 Pinot Noir

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 Wines! Of! Oregon!

M