monkey 1

monkey 1
Needing a glass or After a glass?

Saturday, December 29, 2012

2009 Jubileo Zapata Zinfandel

So much for resolutions of the last year.   I attended a number of tastings and a WONDERFUL class about Loire Valley wines . . . but did I blog about them?  NOOOoooooooo!

Sorry about that.  I will try again this coming year to be better about that and about noting the wine bottles opened in house, though I admit I went through a 2 month phase of tea and beer drinking but the craft beers were worth writing about, too, if I had infact, stopped drinking long enough to write about them.

Anywho!   A wine I have had in my basement for a couple of years just waiting for an opportunity to come out was a Mexican Zinfandel.  Mexico isn't noted for good wine which prompted me to buy this one.  As I recall the original tasting, I didn't buy it for the taste there were other Zins which packed more punch, which I loved more than this one but they weren't the novelty from Mexico.   I bought it because it was from Mexico and did not taste bad.

At the original tasting in 2011, I recall a thin tasting but okay wine, overpriced at that time - higher than what it is selling for now  - IF you can find a bottle.   It's not well known and from a country not known for wines so you might still find it.   If you find it for under $20 consider it, if you find it for under $15, buy it.

Opening it tonight for a spiced rib dinner with roasted vegetables we experienced a wine whose personality changed between courses.

At first  opening, thin tasting, very fruity, on the sweet side.

Given a few more minutes: bright  berry fruit, on the sweet side.

After about an hour: fruit disappears, wine gains a deeper dimension.   It went very well with an assortment of cheese and finally, with the dinner.

It was by no means the hot bold alcohol bomb that many zins are.   It was on the light side for a zin but all the more versatile because of that.  Alcohol is listed in the 14%+ range but you didn't feel that in the nose or the throat.

If you have bottle don't wait too much longer to open it. 

  

Saturday, February 11, 2012

A Couple of Quick Food Pairing Notes

Successful food- wine pairings.  Quick note.

Steak Bomb Calzone & even some Hawaiian Pizza: 2008 Pennywise Pinot Noir.
wine: soft fruit, rounded, a little earthy yet kinda light.  I figured it would probably work with the steak but was unsure about the tricky sweet-sour nature of the Hawaiian Pizza but it worked well.  There was enough earthy but smooth nature of the wine to still work with the Hawaiian side after the sweetness canceled out.




Roasted Pork Loin with (roasted) garlic: 2008 Irony Pinot Noir: the wonderful, almost magical alchemy that happens in a synergetic pairing.  As an aperitif the wine was tart, either sour cherry or cranberry viewpoint depending.  With the pork, the wine became deeper, fuller.  Apres dinner, over talk even with hours of aeration in the glass, the wine still retained a nice rounded, full, nature.







Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Aruma 2010

My new Go-To?  The available vintage of my GoTo Bogle Phantom is almost up.  Aruma is deep, rich, also wonderful...maybe not quite as rhapsodic but close enough for less $$.

Many Malbecs I have experienced have a rough edge that some aging softens.  This one does not.  This one is roll your eyes up in your head, curl your toes wonderful as is.

Deep color, deep aroma & dark cherry, rich flavors.  Wonderful partnership between Lafitte and Catena.  Great value.

I tried the new vintage, the latest bottled vintage of K-BZinfandel...what a disappointment.  Maybe age will deepen it but right now it doesn't begin to capture a fraction of the wonderful depth of the previous vintage.   It looks like I may be drinking a lot of the Aruma until summer whites take over again.




Saturday, January 21, 2012

Bogle Phantom 2008

This became my back up wine after I drank my last bottle of Klinker Brick Old Vine Zin '09.  This isn't K-B but it has been close enough to go back to the wine shop for more bottles.  It will be  my Go-To wine until I get a chance to try the latest vintage K-B.

A red blend which is deep, rich and wonderful weight to snuggle up with on cold and now snowy nights.


Buttonwood Hawk Red 2007

This was one of a local wine club pack.  It is a good thing I made notes.  I had no clue how I ended up with this.

This is an unspecified red blend from 1 of the 2 appellations in Santa Barbara county, California.

The color was deep.  Tannins were still present but on the gentler side.  I noticed them only in afterthought while I was thinking about what I was drinking. They helped the wine stand up to the food, keep it's character. 

It didn't have the weight of cabs or other cab dominant blends but it certainly had more oomph than many Merlot blends.  It was certainly tasty but I wouldn't go out of my way to look for it.

Zappa Zappa Zappa!

Is what I said when I went back to the wine shop when I picked up the last three bottles of this a year or 2 back! 

A red blend from the Languedoc made up of Syrah, Tempranillo and Grenache.

Color was very red.  The tannins, smoothed.  The fruit wasn't over the top but just enough for my mood.  It held up over the 4 days it took to finish the bottle.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Saladini Pilastri 2006

Pregio del Conte.  

This seems to be a red blended wine with no mention of varietal.

Nose: not really aromatic or aromatic enough for me to identify anything...blackberry-ish with a touch of eucalytus?

Color: heading into brick.

Taste: Smooth.  Very light fruit, just a touch of something just barely sweet? - or maybe that was what my capellini w basil marinara & lamb pushed it to be.  Medium finish.

Now that dinner is finished, the wine in my glass is not sweet at all.  Apparently I guessed well at my pairing tonight.  Yippee!

Good thing I liked it.  I have 1 bottle left in my cellar.  I am trying to work my way through the older bottles before they get past their prime.  So far I have been lucky.  There were some that were starting the down slide off the bell curve.  This is probably the last year for this 06.

Li Veli Primonero 2008

Primitivo & Negroamaro.   

Not my usual label type picture.  I pitched the bottle before I remembered to take a pic.  My bad.

It wasn't the wine taste I was looking for that night.  I couldn't remember how it tasted and I opened it without doing a quick internet search.  My bad again.

The wine wasn't bad.  It just wasn't what I was in the mood for that night or the nights it took to finish.

The nose was slightly medicinal.
Color: red heading to brick at the edges.
Taste: No obvious fruit erm...maybe a not sweet blackberry? Smooth. Long finish.  Earthiness - in a good way.  No taste of ass that night.

Chateau Les Tours Seguy 2007

Just when I thought the fresh barnyard was bad....I open up one which smells like an outhouse.  

I have a laminated wine wheel which lists categories which help neophytes identify what they are smelling.  It identifies Chemical smells of all sorts, including Hydrogen Sulfide & Kerosene.  It doesn't list sh*t.  It must be a universal given.

The smell did not go away with aeration though it was less so the next day.

That's it.  Beyond drinking through the obscure, garagiste wines already in my cellar I am not getting any more.  I could really use the smells of summer berries right about now: even more so when the snows start to fall.

90% Merlot, 10% Cab Sauvignon.

Other than the offending nose, the taste wasn't bad.  It was a plummy taste, on the lighter side.  Light finish.