VINOGRAPHY: a wine blog
Wine and food adventures in San Francisco and around the world
~ Recently in Red Wine Category ~
2001 Renaissance Winery Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, North Yuba
Every time I review a wine from some little producer whose wines I adore, I experience a pang of regret, because I know that by writing about these wineries and their wines, I only make them more expensive and harder to acquire for myself (and others). I do occasionally get e-mails from ticked off wine lovers bemoaning the fact that I've divulged one of their secret sources for great wine. But that's just an occupational hazard for me, and doesn't outweigh the joy of being able to say things like this: Listen up people. There is some seriously amazing wine... continue reading 
- Posted by: Alder on January 12, 2010 10:22 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2007 Potel-Aviron Fleurie Vielles Vignes, Beaujolais, France
Should one of your New Years' resolutions be to broaden your wine horizons without breaking your wine budget, one of the places worth exploring would certainly be Beaujolais. Much maligned, or at the very least avoided -- and rightly so -- by many wine lovers whose experience with Beaujolais consists of a glass of banana-scented Nouveau in November, the region actually produces some truly wonderful wines that can be tremendous values. The Beaujolais region has seen a renaissance of winemaking in the past decade, with many serious, small producers trying to make wines that have much more in common with... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 5, 2010 10:45 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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Errazuriz Winery, Chile: Current Releases
The Aconcagua valley presents the first time visitor with a surreal vista. From the flattened floodplain of the valley floor, mountains rise steeply on either side but only their rocky peaks are visible. Starting only a short distance down from their spires, and extending all the way to valley below, the mountains are wreathed in a bumpy, dense green outgrowth that makes them look like they've been carpeted with a dark Astroturf on a grand scale. How someone figured out that they could grow avocados on slopes so steep I'd love to know. But once upon a time they did,... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 2, 2010 10:15 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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Corison Winery, Napa: Current Releases
It's hard to get attention in the world of wine. Many wineries and winemakers struggle their entire careers for recognition, both deservedly and some, not quite. In the days of big marketing budgets and cult wines that are only figuratively on everyone's lips (and literally on the lips of very few), it's easy to overlook wineries that have quietly been doing their thing for decades. I can't tell you how many times I've driven by the understated Corison Winery on Highway 29 without ever going in. The number must literally be in the hundreds. While I've still not actually stopped... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on December 29, 2009 9:28 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Olson Ogden Winery, Sonoma: Current Releases
I take a special interest in a particular class of winery. I call them estateless wineries, but they are wineries that have no permanent physical presence. These types of operations have no vineyards, own no buildings, and sometimes don't even own any equipment. Such wineries are most often the result of someone taking small steps towards their personal dream of being in the wine business, and are often sources for great wines at reasonable prices. Olson & Ogden winery is a perfect example of such a label. Proprietor John Ogden worked in the high tech corporate world for most of... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on December 19, 2009 10:51 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Altair Winery, Chile: Current Releases
Hillside vineyards are not the norm in Chile. The country has a plethora of alluvial valley floors that are always the first choice for planting because they're the lowest effort places to stick vineyards, and the cheapest to farm. During my visit there last week, hillside vineyards became an easy indication of both serious ambitions when it came to winemaking, as well as the financial wherewithal to back them up. Altair Winery has a lot of both. The winery was initially a joint venture between Laurent Dassault, owner of Chateau Dassault and Chateau La Fleur in Saint Emilion, Bordeaux, and... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on December 7, 2009 9:59 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine
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The Best Wines from Chile?: Tasting Notes for Wines over $40
As some of you know, I spent the last week traveling around Chile trying to get a sense of the country and its wines. It was my first trip there and I was quite excited to taste a lot of wine -- education by immersion, so to speak. With that in mind, my hosts for the week, the Wines of Chile organization, pulled together a tasting of what in Chile they refer to as "Icon Wines." These wines are usually the top wines in many wineries' portfolios, in some cases they are the only wines, and they generally retail for... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on December 6, 2009 10:49 AM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2003 Descendientes de J. Palacios "Moncerbal," Bierzo, Spain
This is one of those wines that I live for. The kind that begins with an unknown bottle thrust in front of me by a friend with a twinkle in their eye, and ends with a profound memory of taste that becomes one of those moments that wine lovers cherish. Such wines are not common, at least not for me, but they are what keep me passionate about drinking and writing and enjoying the world of wine. Occasionally still described by romanticizing writers as "off in a forgotten corner of Northwestern Spain," the winegrowing region of Bierzo can no longer... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 17, 2009 11:49 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Tasting the Wines of Lodi
I suppose you might measure my enthusiasm (or insanity) for learning about wine by the glee with which I look forward to the opportunities to taste several hundred wines from a particular region, vintage, or variety. The public tastings that afford any wine lover the chance to taste in this fashion are the single most valuable way to educate the palate as well as to find out what's going on in a particular place or vintage. So when the chance came to hang out on Treasure Island for a few hours to taste the wines of Lodi a couple of... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 27, 2009 10:41 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Activities , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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2007 Craggy Range "Zebra Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Central Otago, New Zealand
A relatively compact landmass, New Zealand nonetheless seems to possess every possible topography and climate. Tropical rainforests, glaciers, arid plains, high deserts, rich low country farmlands, coastal beaches, and alpine foothills, to name just a few. While the country may perhaps be known best for its cool-climate winegrowing, it should really come as no surprise that its winegrowing regions mirror the diversity of its larger geography. The fact that the country has a growing region with a climate like Bordeaux or Rioja, however, still remains somewhat under the radar for most wine lovers. The Hawke's Bay region of the Northern... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 16, 2009 11:04 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Blackbird Vineyards, Napa: Current Releases
As you likely know, I make it my business to keep my eye on new California wineries, especially in Napa and Sonoma, as much as I can given the fact that I do a lot of other things besides write about wine. Whenever possible, I like to taste the first releases from these wineries. They are not always fantastic - some are good, some show potential, and some simply need to be written off as first efforts and retried again later. That's the thing about wines, just because they're not good now, that doesn't mean they won't be later, and,... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 10, 2009 11:45 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Bond Estates, Napa: A Retrospective Tasting
Like the saying goes, if I had a nickel for every time I'd heard or read about a winery "sparing no expense" to get the "best possible fruit" to make the "best wine they could," I'd be a rich man. Winery owners and winemakers are like proud parents -- they see the best in their operations, and if they are aware of their flaws or shortcomings, when company is over, they put on their best face. After all, they're ultimately trying to sell wine. As someone who has spent a lot of time visiting wineries, and hearing the owners and... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 7, 2009 11:44 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Perfect 10s , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2006 Cadaretta Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley, Washington
I make it my habit to pay attention to new, small wineries. Generally that means seeking them out at public tastings, perking up my ears when I hear the names of wineries I don't know, and approaching each box of unknown wine I get on my doorstep as the potential to be something new and exciting. Generally, whatever you might like to call these efforts of mine, if they can be described as efforts, tend to be focused on California. This has nothing to do with my preferences, so much as it does with where I live, who I know,... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on September 24, 2009 10:46 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Kutch Wines, Sonoma: Current Releases
Every wine has a story behind it. Some are better than others. Every wine has a dream behind it. Some are bigger than others. While some people are content to drink wine their entire lives, and never once feel the urge to make it, there are those wine lovers who yearn for something more than they get out of even the best bottles. This is the story of a guy whose enthusiasm for wine got the best of him, and whose passion for his dreams got under the skin of some people who couldn't help but show him how to... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on September 15, 2009 10:59 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2006 Girard Winery "Artistry" Red Wine, Napa
You can often tell just how much someone loves Napa wine from their familiarity with the sub-appellations or American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) that divide the larger Napa Valley into select, smaller sections. Many consumers have heard of the Stag's Leap District, and possibly Rutherford or Oakville, but there are more than ten other AVAs in the Napa Valley. AVAs are not enough for some people, however, especially those that pursue the most expensive and difficult to acquire wines of Napa. Discussions of the finer points of these wines rarely begin with appellations or AVAs. Instead they invoke individual vineyards and... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on September 13, 2009 9:17 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2007 Quivira Vineyards "Wine Creek Ranch" Grenache, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma
If there's one thing you can bet on in the wine industry, it's change. Nothing stays the same for long -- that goes as much for any of business aspects of the industry as it does the conditions from vintage to vintage. Despite this variation, our judgments as consumers about wineries and their wines tend to be absolute. Casual wine drinkers are likely to treat wines like candy bars -- they taste them once and if they don't like them, they never buy again. There's a certain amount of sense to this, and it certainly fits my mantra of "life's... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 16, 2009 9:55 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Piña Napa Valley: Current Releases
If one were to speculate on the wine market as a savvy investor might in the small-cap stock market, the game would be the same: follow people you know with good track records. In the wine world, we'd also have to include a corollary about betting on great vineyard sites, but leaving aside the raw materials, it's clear that most good wines don't happen by accident. They're made by talented people. Finding talented people in Napa isn't hard at first. There are a lot of them, many of whom have big brand names. When they start working for a winery,... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 8, 2009 10:32 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Patton Valley Vineyard, Willamette Valley: Current Releases
When it comes to wineries I generally know I'm in for something good when I drive down a long dirt road (unsure if I'm headed in the right direction) and finally come upon some vineyards and a couple of small aluminum barns with harvest bins stacked outside. For many small winery operations, the barrel storage, the lab, the office, and the tasting room are all under one corrugated roof. I had the pleasure of winding my way down just such a road on a rainy Autumn day three years ago to arrive at the little operation that is Patton Valley... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 2, 2009 10:16 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Notes from the Al Fresco Tasting at IPNC 2009
I go to a lot of wine tastings, and have come to really appreciate those that are done right. It may not be immediately apparent how easily a large public tasting can be screwed up, but all it takes is one small thing to make it a really miserable experience. For instance, a lack of spit buckets has turned more than one big tasting event into a nightmare. The spacing of the tables, the labeling of the stations, the number of wines available, the availability of water, the offering of food, the temperature of the building -- these can all... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 27, 2009 9:58 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Activities , Wine Reviews
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Oregon's International Pinot Noir Celebration: Day One
Under the towering trees and across the sprawling green lawns of Linfield College in the little town of McMinnville, Oregon, several hundred people are plowing through the International Pinot Noir Celebration at the kind of pace you would expect for 80 degree days filled with Pinot Noir and good company. My day began with breakfast on the lawn and a welcome by Master of Ceremonies Jancis Robinson. Jancis recounted her memories of past IPNC attendances, going back to the early years of the festival, which was pioneering in its singular focus on Pinot Noir. Perhaps the most interesting moment in... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 24, 2009 7:40 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Activities , Wine Reviews
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Arista Winery, Russian River Valley: Current Releases
Given the chance, I highly recommend anyone to make the investment of time and money to watch a winery evolve from its very first vintage. It doesn't take much, just buying a bottle or two every year from a brand new winery that you think shows some promise, and then drinking them. Such observation is a wonderful study in personality. You get to see, or perhaps more accurately, taste, how a winemaker settles into a winery and its vineyards, and how he or she begins to express whatever it is that can be expressed through the wines. I've had the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 17, 2009 9:49 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2007 J. Rochioli "River Block" Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
It took me a long time in my evolution as a wine lover to truly understand the amount of money and sweat and energy that goes into building a world class winery over decades, even centuries. Many wine lovers early in their education (and in their earning power) are often flummoxed by prices for wines that start to head north of $80 or $90 per bottle. Should they pursue their love of wine long enough to really learn (and see for themselves) what kind of work goes into some of the world's best vineyards, and to taste the wine that... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 2, 2009 9:46 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Giacomo Conterno Barolo and Barbera: Italy's Greatest Wines?
Because of our deep history with wine, the standards by which we judge today's efforts must be placed within the context of tradition. While we can judge California Pinot Noir on its own merits, we cannot understand or evaluate it completely without reference to Burgundy, its ancestral home. Burgundy will always be the benchmark for Pinot Noir, as it has been for centuries. Just as there exist regional benchmarks for grape varieties or wine styles, there also exist some individual wine producers, and even individual wines, that manage to define the uppermost limits of quality or the epitome of a... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 27, 2009 10:07 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2006 Hourglass "Blueline Estate" Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa
There is no single recipe for greatness when it comes to Napa wine, but starting with a great plot of land can take you a long way. The only problem is, a lot of people don't necessarily know a great plot of land when they see one. Sometimes these plots of land can be hidden in plain sight until the right person comes along to notice. When Jeff Smith's father moved the family to St. Helena in 1964, he wasn't thinking about wine, he was thinking about real estate development. He was also thinking about the tiny trickle of tourists... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 17, 2009 9:55 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 Lieff "Auberge Road Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon, Rutherford, Napa
There are people who start wineries and work for a long time to get to the point that their names become synonymous with good wine, regardless of whether their names are on the bottle or not. And then there are those who you wonder at how they managed to avoid having their name on a wine bottle for as long as they did. Robert Lieff has a long history with wine, and with Napa Valley in particular. How he has managed to only just now end up with his name on a bottle, is in part a testament to his... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 15, 2009 9:45 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine
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2006 Hall "Exzellenz" Sacrashe Vineyard Proprietary Red Wine, Rutherford, Napa
The pleasures of childhood call to us as adults. The tug of nostalgia is so great that we so often find ourselves indulging in little things that remind us of our early years, and in some cases we throw ourselves passionately into the pursuit of the things we have lost. Kathryn Hall lost the vineyard that was her childhood playground. Despite having managed the vineyard for nearly a decade, letting it go after her father's death was the right thing to do. But her memories of growing up among the grape vines in Redwood Valley, coupled with her enduring love... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 13, 2009 11:57 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Flowers Winery, Sonoma Coast: Single Vineyard Pinot Noirs
I love the places where wine grows in spite of the adversity heaped upon it by the place, the climate, and the geology. I also love the places where wine grows despite all conventional wisdom to the contrary -- the places everyone else avoided, but where visionary winegrowers and winemakers have staked their claims and bet their futures. Often times these two types of places are one in the same. Call them extreme vineyard sites. The places that most people would dismiss as infeasible for making wine, for one reason or another. Some of these places stay extreme, and the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 2, 2009 11:18 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2006 Jack Larkin Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa
The allure of Napa is legendary, even clichéd. The wine country lifestyle, or whatever you want to call it, combined with the love of wine has inspired countless people to sell everything they own and head to Napa to try and live their own personal wine dream. There must be people who simply flounder and fail in these endeavors. Like many of the unfortunate, their stories never surface for most of us. We tend to only hear about those that succeed in turning their dreams into reality. Yet I continue to be astonished at just how many people seem to... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 30, 2009 10:46 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 Peacock Family Cabernet Sauvignon, Spring Mountain District, Napa
I have a hard spot in my heart for peacocks. Spending summers with my father in Sonoma County as a kid, we had a neighbor with a bunch of peacocks that would wander over towards our house and hang out in the trees nearby. Beautiful birds? Yes. But they also have an incredibly loud, piercing call that at 5:00 AM makes you wonder what peacock stew tastes like. I recently learned what Peacock wine, er, rather Peacock Family wine tastes like, and we won't hold the bird's reputation against Christopher and Betsy Peacock, because the wine they're making from their... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 16, 2009 9:33 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2003 Adagio "Premium" Malbec, Lujan de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina
Every time Spring rolls around, I find myself thinking wistfully of Argentina. I spent a wonderful three weeks there a few years ago just after the harvest eating, drinking, and generally appreciating everything about the country. Now, especially as our family budget gets tighter, I reminisce about amazing dinners for $25 and great bottles of wine for $15. So I dug through my notes a little just for nostalgia's sake and found a really nice wine that I discovered while I was there, but didn't end up writing about for some reason. I had asked the sommelier at Cabaña Las... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 5, 2009 10:38 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Outpost Wines, Napa: Current Releases
To the casual visitor or inexperienced wine lover, Napa may just be a name on a bottle, or a vision of vineyards stretched between Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail. But like many wine regions, Napa is only a word on a map and an official designation for a group of winegrowing regions that, at times, seem to have little in common. The extreme variations of climate, soils, and topography among the various sections of Napa County make the subdivision of the region into separate AVA's (American Viticultural Areas) an inevitability. The variety of terroirs represented by these 14... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 3, 2009 10:59 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 François Blanchard "Violoncelite" Cabernet Franc, Touraine, France
Perhaps some of the most interesting wines in the world are made by cranks, crackpots, and wackos -- iconoclasts that keep time to their own secret rhythms and make wine in ways that often make sense only to them. You might say that I'm a collector of such wines and winemakers, in the same way that young boys collect baseball cards. And today I'll add another to my growing menagerie of eccentric visionaries that make extraordinary wine. François Blanchard is a jazz musician who one day found himself the owner of his family's (somewhat decrepit) wine estate and decided that... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 25, 2009 11:04 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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The World's Best Kosher Wine?: Tasting The Covenant
The more stories I hear about how some wineries get started, the more I tend to think that by far the best way to start a wine brand is almost by accident. Ten years ago if you had told wine writer Jeff Morgan that he'd eventually be making the best (and most expensive) Kosher wine in the world, he would have probably fallen off his chair laughing. At that point, his exposure to Kosher wine consisted of the seven consecutive years he wrote (what he says was) essentially the same story on Kosher wine for the Wine Spectator. I'm not... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 9, 2009 10:20 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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1999 Washington State Cabernet: Perspectives and Tasting Notes
This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend Taste Washington, the state's annual showcase of its wines. My ratings for the more than 200 Washington wines I tasted will take some time for me to transcribe and tabulate, and will be posted here on Vinography later this week. In the meantime, however, I thought I'd share my tasting notes from one the seminars I had the opportunity to attend during the first day of the festival, a look back at some top Washington Cabernets from 10 years ago, and a comparison with their recent 2006 vintage. Moderated by Bob... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 5, 2009 11:12 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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New Cabernets from Napa
When I was a kid, I wanted to be an archaeologist or an exploratory marine biologist. I had dreams of discovering lost civilizations or new species in the oceans or jungles. I never quite managed to fulfill that dream, but I have managed to channel some of that passion into the discovery of new wines. In the past few years, there has been an explosion of new wineries in Napa. Other than the market forces that made making Napa wine pretty attractive, and therefore something people wanted to try, I'm not entirely sure what might be responsible for this serious... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 2, 2009 10:42 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
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Merry Edwards Wines, Russian River Valley: Single Vineyard Pinot Noirs
Meredith "Merry" Edwards drives an SUV with a license plate that matches the title on her business card: Reina de Pinot. With far too few female winemakers in this country, claiming to be the Queen of Pinot might not involve much competition no matter what your real qualifications. But anyone would be hard pressed to find a woman winemaker in the Western Hemisphere that has more experience growing and making Pinot Noir than Merry Edwards. Frankly, there aren't many winemakers, men or women, that have been making Pinot in the state of California for more than thirty years. Edwards started... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 24, 2009 10:41 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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The Best Cabernet In Napa: Tasting Premiere Napa Valley 2009
One of my favorite events each year involves the opportunity to sample some of the best wines that Napa produces in a given vintage. At Premiere Napa Valley, an auction that serves as the world's most expensive "bake sale" to support the efforts of the non-profit Napa Valley Vintners Association, journalists like me get a chance to sneak a taste of hundreds of unique wines that are purchased by the nation's top wine retailers at staggeringly high prices. This year, as every year, 200 member wineries each crafted a unique auction lot of wine that in most cases represents the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 25, 2009 10:17 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Kapcsándy Family Winery, Napa: Current Releases
Napa has a way of turning modest dreams into major productions. Lou Kapcsándy and his wife Bobbie decided to retire to Napa mostly out of nostalgia for the picnics and wine tasting they used to do as a young married couple living in Sausalito. Forty years after the first of these romantic escapes, their retirement dream included only a little cottage with at most an acre or so of vines, so Lou could putter in the garage and make a barrel or two of wine from his backyard fruit. Three years after the family, including their son Louis, made the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 21, 2009 8:40 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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The Best Zinfandel in California: Tasting ZAP 2009
In this tough economic climate, people are spending less on the discretionary side of their budgets. If you had asked me to make predictions, I would have told you that this would likely have led to fewer people attending this year's ZAP Zinfandel festival. Certainly market data are showing us that people are buying less expensive wines, and I would have thought that meant spending $69 for a chance to taste a whole lot of Zinfandel would be hard to justify. But the line snaking around the edge of the parking lot, and the crowds inside proved me entirely wrong... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 16, 2009 10:03 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 Ladera Cabernet Sauvignon, Howell Mountain, Napa
I've been drinking wine for more than 30% of my life at this point, taking notes on wine for ten years, and writing this blog for five, but despite that fact, it's not exactly common for me to be able to say with certainty that I've tasted every vintage of a particular wine made by any one winery. Even those wineries whose inaugural vintages debuted since Vinography became a going concern I am generally not able to taste their wines with regularity every single year. But there are a few wineries whose wines I have been buying and tasting since... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 8, 2009 8:02 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2007 Cooper Mountain Vineyards "20th Anniversary Reserve" Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon
One of the great pleasures of wine appreciation will always be the process of tasting the wine of a single winery over a very long span of time. Tracking the products of a winery's labor over the years can be remarkably rewarding regardless of whether the experience is one of consistency, or of progress and change. I've only had the pleasure of tasting the last two vintages of wine from a little family winery in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Despite my recent introduction to Cooper Mountain Vineyards, I can almost taste the twenty years that came before this, their 20th vintage.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 29, 2009 10:36 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2004 Domaine de la Bouissiere Gigondas, France
The best known and highest quality wines of the world continue to get more expensive over time. This is a function of the increasing value of their brands, the increasing recognition of the regions they are grown in, and the rising demand for top tier wines. These price and popularity gains filter down from the most well known wines to those that are slightly less well known, producing the aggregate effect of price increases in most of the world's famous wine regions, at least for the wines that represent the upper end of the regions production. As a result, regions... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 17, 2009 10:14 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2003 Smith Madrone Cabernet Sauvignon, Spring Mountain District, Napa
There are more legends, stories, fairytales, and fables than anyone could count which all involve some guy up on a mountainside somewhere. Sometimes a hermit, sometimes a wizard, sometimes a troll -- sometimes just an old man who went to sleep under a tree for a long, long time. No matter what the story, there's always something a little different about the guy on the mountain, something that is both scary and alluring at the same time. Stu Smith might be living out yet another version of one of these tales. The fact that Stu sports a big gray and... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 10, 2009 6:23 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Two Hands Wine, Barossa, Australia: Current Releases
One of the things I love about the wine world is the way in which it rewards people with vision, initiative, talent, and above all, passion. I find it magical that someone can fall in love with wine, and decide that the most important thing for them to do for the rest of their lives is to make wine, and then actually make a living following that passion. Maybe the same thing happens in a lot of industries, but you just don't hear such stories about accounting. Or maybe we only ever hear about the success stories in the wine... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on December 24, 2008 8:45 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2002 Bressan "Special Bottling" Pinot Nero, Friuli, Italy
I'm not entirely sure why some of the best wines in the world are made by people who are more than a little crazy, but there are enough wacko winemakers out there to make it clear that the connection between great wine and reclusive eccentrics is more than mere coincidence. Even more telling are the number of these "eno savants" (to perhaps coin a phrase) that live in Friuli, in northeast Italy. Once upon a time, there was no Italy, there was only the river Isonzo, winding its way down out of the Alps towards the Adriatic sea. From the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on December 7, 2008 10:04 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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1996 J. Rochioli "West Block" Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
To paraphrase Shakespeare, there are wineries that are born great, those that achieve greatness, and those that have greatness thrust upon them. To explain: some fantastic wineries are started by people who are superstars already, and it hardly seems to matter what they do -- these properties are destined for success. Some top wineries seem to come from nowhere, and indeed have greatness thrust upon them, when out of the blue, their wine scores highly somewhere and they are vaulted from obscurity to fame. The majority of the best wineries in the world, however, fall into Malvolio's second category through... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on December 6, 2008 11:55 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2006 Jean-Paul Thevenet "Vielles Vignes" Morgon, Beaujolais, France
The wine industry spends a lot of time and energy fighting for the attention of global consumers. In particular, they've tried hard to market seasonally to consumers, but they just can't quite compete with the likes of Oktoberfest for beer drinkers. The best that the wine industry has been able to come up with sends even the most tolerant wine lovers running for cover every November, as the rollout of Beaujolais Nouveau reaches ever more spectacular heights of commercial bling. It would be one thing if the wine was even somewhat drinkable. But these days, what passes for Beaujolais Nouveau... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 26, 2008 10:49 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2006 Williams Selyem "Hirsch Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast
We don't have a Cru classification in California (we just have mailing lists and release prices) but there are a few vineyards in the state that would most certainly be at the top of the list. Their names are well known to those wine lovers who can afford the generally expensive wines they produce, and one of them is unquestionably the Hirsch Vineyard. First planted in 1980 by farmer David Hirsch, the Hirsch Vineyard is located on the mountain ridges above the northern California town of Fort Ross at 1500 feet above the ocean surface and 3.5 miles as the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 23, 2008 9:40 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2004 E. Guigal "Chateau d'Ampuis" Côte-Rôtie, Northern Rhone, France
One of the greatest experiences that a wine lover can encounter is a wine that stops them in their tracks. I'll admit that I'm excitable in general, but there's nothing that gets me quite so giddy as a schoolboy as when I stumble across a wine that truly bowls me over. Such wines are the closest I get anymore to the emotions of that first passionate kiss in a new relationship -- they electrify me. While the world slows down to a crawl around me, all I want to do is stick my nose in the glass and inhale slowly.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 18, 2008 10:36 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2006 Blackbird Vineyards "Illustration" Proprietary Red Wine, Oak Knoll District, Napa
As you likely know, I make it my business to keep my eye on new California wineries, especially in Napa and Sonoma, as much as I can given the fact that I do a lot of other things besides write about wine. Whenever possible, I like to taste the first releases from these wineries. They are not always fantastic - some are good, some show potential, and some simply need to be written off as first efforts and retried again later. That's the thing about wines, just because they're not good now, that doesn't mean they won't be later, and,... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 16, 2008 10:29 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Tasting the Red Wines of Simonsberg Ward, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa! I've come down to the Cape Winelands to dive deep into South African wine in a way that isn't possible in the United States. In most wine stores I'm lucky to find a handful of South African wines at most, and forget about restaurants, which often just have a single representative wine on their list, if anything at all. So I'm here under the imposing shadow of Table Mountain to attend Cape Wine 08, the biannual South African wine convention -- their equivalent of VinItaly or VinExpo. I'll be visiting a few wine producers,... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on September 23, 2008 3:43 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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1996 Walter Hansel Estate Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
One of the greatest, though imminently forgivable, crimes perpetrated by a large number of even the most knowledgeable wine lovers consists of the tendency to consume great wines before they have had the opportunity to fully develop. Sometimes referred to as "infanticide," this practice varies in its levels of extremity depending on the category of wine. In my opinion, perhaps the most slighted of all categories in this respect is California Pinot Noir. While it may not have the aging potential of Burgundy (though we don't really know for sure -- no one has been making really serious Pinot Noir... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on September 20, 2008 1:27 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 Gargiulo Vineyards "G Major Seven Study - 575 OVX Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville, Napa
There's something really cool about seeing a young winery start to hit its stride. I've only seen a few newborn calves and foals in their first moments after birth as they learn to use their spindly legs, but it's hard not to feel a sense of pride when after a few minutes, they go galloping around in circles. I was first introduced to Gargiulo Vineyards at a wine bar in San Francisco a couple of years ago. I just happened to stop by for a drink, and April Gargiulo was on hand, pouring what was then her family's second release... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on September 13, 2008 5:16 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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1997 Staglin Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon, Rutherford
From the late 1800's to the first half of the twentieth century California represented a land of opportunity for many. In Northern California, this potential seems to have been realized in particular by Italian immigrants who settled North of San Francisco in great numbers, founding small towns up the coast and in the inland valleys. Drive Highway 1, Highway 12, Highway 116, and the Bohemian Highway North of the city and you'll pass old barns and homesteads, country stores, and several Italian restaurants that have been operating continuously since at least the Thirties. That these fiercely determined immigrants met with... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 28, 2008 4:56 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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JC Cellars, Oakland: Current Releases
In the Silicon Valley, business incubation is quite common -- larger companies often provide financial, operations, and moral support to smaller companies that they themselves have started, or outside start-ups that they believe have a good potential for success. This practice has become so normal that some companies have established entire business models based on incubation. Incubation has also become common in the wine industry, where the costs of all the equipment and supplies required to make wine can be an extreme barrier to entry, and a source of extremely high overhead for those who do take the plunge. Just... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 24, 2008 5:00 PM
- Filed under: Pink Wine , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2003 Meyer Family Cellars "Bonny's Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville
Heritage plays out in many ways in the Napa Valley. There are only a few remaining families that have been farming in the valley since Prohibition, and even those that have tenures lasting more than three decades are increasingly being supplanted by new blood or corporate interests. Some of those families that have left the valley after decades often move on to other enterprises after cashing out on their vineyard investments. However, it's tough to abandon Napa Valley once you've lived and loved there for so long. Winemaker Justin Meyer moved his family to the Anderson Valley in 1999 after... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 14, 2008 11:18 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
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2005 Hughes-Wellman Cabernet Sauvignon, St. Helena, Napa Valley
Good wine is rarely made by accident. So much can go wrong in the winemaking process that to get something that isn't complete dreck is a triumph, and those who are capable of creating fantastic wines are, despite their modesty and common protestations of "just letting nature take her course," truly talented artisans. While wines, and great wines in particular, are made with incredible forethought and planning, sometimes wine labels can spring up overnight as the result of an opportune conversation or new friendship. Such is the case with this wine, which may be the first and only vintage under... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 2, 2008 10:57 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
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Vérité Wines, Sonoma: Current Releases
Formulaic is an adjective that is often leveled at some of California's top boutique wines and their winemaking. As if when you finally manage to afford all the components required to make a high-end wine, that somehow you just throw them together and, "poof" you've got yourself a $300, 94 point superstar. This stereotype is especially convenient for those who can't afford to drink such wines. I should know. I still can't afford to drink such wines, and while I've learned better now, about 10 years ago I believed that the only thing special about big name wines was how... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 21, 2008 11:34 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2006 Baker Lane "Hurst Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast
Some people seem to get into the wine business through sheer determination. After years of saving, scraping, dreaming and planning, vineyard or winery ownership is the fulfillment of many people's long held (if not hard earned) fantasies. And then there are those people who somehow seem destined for it -- people whose stories you hear and you think, how on Earth did you manage not to do this earlier? If Stephen Singer was going to fall into one of these categories it would most certainly be the latter. In 2003 he became the proprietor of a small winery called Baker... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 19, 2008 11:17 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 Veramonte "Primus" Red Wine, Casablanca Valley, Chile
It's hard to believe that in the early 1990's less than 100 acres of vineyards were planted in Chile's Casablanca valley. In little more than two decades, this region of Chile has surged in growth and popularity, and is currently producing excellent wines that generally represent fantastic values on the world market. The region is currently home to more than 10,000 acres of vineyards. Back when the grape acreage was still in the triple digits Agustin Huneeus decided that the Casablanca valley was one of Chile's most promising wine regions, and that he needed to start making wine there. Not... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 25, 2008 10:18 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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2005 Star Lane Vineyards "Astral" Cabernet Sauvignon, Santa Ynez Valley
There are those in the wine world who seek out (and often pay for) the best possible advice they can get. Winemaking and winegrowing are sciences as much as they are arts, and these days, there are plenty of experts to be had in both arenas. And then there are those in the wine world that no matter what the scientists, experts, and even their friends say, choose to follow their instincts. Call them pig-headed, call them eccentric, call them iconoclasts, there are certain people that will always walk their own paths when it comes to wine. Jim Dierberg seems... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 22, 2008 10:17 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
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2005 Blackbird Vineyards Proprietary Red Wine, Napa
I make it my business to keep my eye on new California wineries, especially in Napa and Sonoma, as much as I can given the fact that I do a lot of other things besides write about wine. Whenever possible, I like to taste the first releases from these wineries. They are not always fantastic - some are good, some show potential, and some simply need to be written off as first efforts and retried again later. That's the thing about wines, just because they're not good now, that doesn't mean they won't be later, and, of course, vice versa.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 3, 2008 11:43 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Meteor Vineyard, Napa: Debut Releases
Barry Schuler may know a thing or two about running multi-billion dollar technology companies, but what he really wants to talk about, given the chance, is food and wine. The former CEO of AOL, Schuler often gets credited along with Steve Case (who preceded Schuler as CEO) for the company's success in the late Nineties. But while his colleagues and most of America's top technology executives were returning home at the end of their long days to comfortable suburbs near major metropolitan areas, at the end of the week Schuler was making his way back to Napa, California. Schuler may... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 11, 2008 7:24 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
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Does Napa's Best Cabernet Live in Oakville?: A Recent Tasting
While often referred to as a single "place" when it comes to wine, Napa is hardly a single monolithic growing region. Each of its 14 established AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) lays claim to a separate identity, characterized by geology, microclimate, and different histories of production. The Oakville AVA has one of the most storied of such histories. It is home to the famed To Kalon Vineyard, purchased by H.W. Crabb in 1868, shortly after the installation of a railroad stop made the tiny village of Oakville spring to life. In 1876 Crabb's neighbor John Benson bottled his inaugural vintage of... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 4, 2008 11:08 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 Piña Napa Valley "D'Adamo Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa
If one were to speculate on the wine market as a savvy investor might in the small-cap stock market, the game would be the same: follow people you know with good track records. In the wine world, we'd also have to include a corollary about betting on great vineyard sites, but leaving aside the raw materials, it's clear that most good wines don't happen by accident. They're made by talented people. Finding talented people in Napa isn't hard at first. There are a lot of them, many of whom have big brand names. When they start working for a winery,... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 2, 2008 11:48 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2003 Pulenta Estate "Gran Corte VII" Red Wine, Mendoza, Argentina
Three years ago this week I was making my way around the top restaurants of Buenos Aires, ordering too much food, too much wine, and having a grand old time. I had come to Argentina, in addition to simply relax, to find out whether or not there was anything worth drinking made out of a grape called Malbec. The answer, of course, was a resounding "yes!" I managed to figure out why some serious wine lovers (and critics alike) had begun to quietly suggest that Argentinean Malbec was going to be the Next Big Thing. This wine was NOT one... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 16, 2008 11:09 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Neal Family Vineyards, Napa: Current Releases
In some ways, if Mark Neal and his small winery, Neal Family Vineyards, didn't make fantastic wines, it would be cause for extreme concern. Neal has been working in the vineyards since the age of eight, and his family business, which was responsible for his early employment among the vines, has been managing many of Napa's finest vineyards for more than four decades. At this point, Jack Neal and Sons, which still carries the name of Mark's father, who passed away in 1994, is the single largest vineyard management company in Napa according to Neal. They manage well over 2000... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 10, 2008 10:11 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 Domaine de Chateau Gaillard Saumur, Loire Valley, France
The Loire Valley is perhaps one of the most underrated and unexplored (by most Americans) wine producing regions in France. So often eclipsed by the bombast of Bordeaux, Burgundy, and the Rhone, if it is known at all, the Loire tends to be known for its famous Sauvignon Blanc from Sancerre. Yet the region, which is the largest white wine producing region in France, and the third largest winegrowing appellation (AOC) in the country, also produces many excellent red wines, chiefly from Cabernet Franc. The most dominating feature of the Loire Valley must be the river itself, France's longest and... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 2, 2008 9:20 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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2004 Ridge Vineyards "Monte Bello" Cabernet Sauvignon, Santa Cruz Mountains
As Paul Draper was inducted into the Vintners Hall of Fame a couple of weeks ago in a ceremony at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena, his acceptance speech offered a simple exhortation to members of the wine industry in attendance: make great wines for yourself and for no one else. His suggestion that winemakers follow their own vision instead of chasing the critics or the appeal of the masses (though he did acknowledge that selling wine is important, too) was backed up by the quite confidence of a man who has been doing that for more than... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 27, 2008 11:58 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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1974 Charles Krug "Vintage Selection - Lot F1" Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa
Do you want to know a little secret? I'm probably going to catch hell for telling you, especially from my friend Jack who served this wine to me, and who let me in on the secret in the first place. But he should know better than to tell a blogger anything. So here goes: Pre-1980 California Cabernets are some of the best buys in the wine world right now. Sure, some of them, especially pristine bottlings of reserve Beringer, BV, Heitz, or Stags' Leap wines are going for hundreds of dollars per bottle, but with a little effort you can... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 14, 2008 11:56 PM
- Filed under: Older Vintages , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Kapcsándy Family Winery, Napa: Current Releases
Napa has a way of turning modest dreams into major productions. Lou Kapcsándy and his wife Bobbie decided to retire to Napa mostly out of nostalgia for the picnics and wine tasting they used to do as a young married couple living in Sausalito. Forty years after the first of these romantic escapes, their retirement dream included only a little cottage with at most an acre or so of vines, so Lou could putter in the garage and make a barrel or two of wine from his backyard fruit. Three years after the family, including their son Louis, made the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 4, 2008 7:54 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2004 Swanson Merlot, Oakville, Napa
People travel all sorts of roads to get to Napa Valley. Napa is a refuge for those who can afford to pay for their dreams (with both time and money), and is therefore a place that many choose to reincarnate themselves as winemakers or winery owners after quite storied careers elsewhere. It is also a place that some families begin new legacies for their younger generations. The Swanson family comes to wine, rather uniquely, through what some might consider the antithesis of Napa's California cuisine: frozen TV dinners. Yes, Swanson Frozen TV Dinners. If that four word phrase doesn't ring... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 14, 2008 11:28 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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The Best Zinfandel in California: Tasting at ZAP 2008
I never cease to be amazed at the power of Zinfandel. At the last major Pinot Tasting in San Francisco, I thought to myself that maybe, just maybe, Pinot Noir had unseated Zinfandel as the most exciting grape for the Bay Area wine drinking public. But who was I kidding. I simply just didn't remember the extent of the reveling hordes that descend on San Francisco's Fort Mason Center for the event known as ZAP. When I emerged for a breath of fresh air from the trade and media portion of the tasting, the line to get in to the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 5, 2008 9:49 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2006 Orin Swift Cellars "The Prisoner" Red Wine, Napa
I wish I knew how many wineries in Napa started as "just a guy who decided he wanted to make wine one day." There must be dozens of them. Maybe hundreds. These numbers shouldn't be allowed to devalue the effort and vision it takes to create a successful winery, but sometimes I scratch my head in bemusement at the audacity of so many people who simply decide to throw their lives into the wine business. While we don't really hear about the ones that don't make it, there are enough of them that have become wildly successful that "the guy... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 31, 2008 11:19 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2002 Pietratorcia "Scheria" Rosso, Isola d'Ischia, Italy
The phrase "wine country" generally evokes a wide variety of mental images, largely derived from each person's individual experience in such landscapes. My mental image is most certainly the golden hills of Sonoma County from my summers spent as a child in Northern California, followed closely by the lush green hills of Tuscany in the springtime. I'd venture to say one of the least common pictures of wine country would be a tiny volcanic island, growing grapes within a stone's throw of the Mediterranean and interspersed with geysers and mud baths. Leaving aside the coincidence that Napa valley has its... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 14, 2008 11:10 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 Storrs Winery Petite Sirah, Santa Cruz Mountains
I don't know who said it, but in the last few years I've heard it uttered that the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA is quite possibly the most underrated wine growing region in California. I'm not sure if I'm confident or encyclopedic enough in my knowledge of California wine to affirm that statement, but in my experience there's definitely something to that claim. The winegrowers and winemakers of the Santa Cruz mountains suffer from the same obscurity that a lot of winemakers in other AVAs do throughout the state, simply by virtue of not being in Napa or Sonoma. I also... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on December 12, 2007 11:46 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Jack Tastes Old...Wines
The generosity and collegiality of wine lovers remains one of the tiny miracles of wine for me. I am constantly impressed by the willingness to share their treasures that bonds so many lovers of wine together. Some people seem to get a particular joy from providing others the opportunity to try wines that they would not normally be able to enjoy. In my experience, one should always have a policy of providing friends with the chance to share their best bottles with someone who appreciates them. It's an important service, and one that I'm proud to perform. I happen to... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 27, 2007 11:25 PM
- Filed under: Older Vintages , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2004 Caymus "Special Selection" Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa
To say some wines need no introduction is both a truism and also a disservice. There are indeed some wines, that through hard-won success, have built themselves into a globally recognized brands. These wines have names so well known that they can become synonymous with luxury, greatness, or even a type of grape. Yet the power of a brand also means that many people only know it superficially, sometimes even second hand. Caymus Vineyards may need no introduction, because the phrase "Caymus Cabernet" is legendary at this point. Like Silver Oak, Caymus is a name that will be instantly recognized... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 12, 2007 10:45 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2003 Meyer Family Cellars Syrah, Mendocino
There are some California appellations that need no introduction, others that will ring a bell for experienced wine lovers, and only a select few that nine out of ten people will likely never have heard of. Up until a few years ago, the Yorkville Highlands was one such appellation. These days, it's hard to tell whether it still languishes in obscurity or is gradually making its name known to lovers of California wine. Every time I meet a winemaker or winery marketing person from the area, however, after telling me where their grapes are grown, they always briefly pause,... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 3, 2007 5:39 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
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1997 Colgin "Herb Lamb Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa
There are several tiers of wines that can legitimately and confidently wear the name tag: HELLO MY NAME IS: Cult Napa Cabernet at any party they happen to attend. The top tier is populated by Screaming Eagle, a single wine that practically invented the phrase "cult Cabernet." Below the hysterically unattainable pricing and scarcity of the Eagle, however, there are several wines which clearly deserve the moniker, and which tend to get consumed a bit more often, if only because in doing so, a wine lover isn't drinking a the equivalent of a San Francisco monthly mortgage payment. That's not... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 14, 2007 11:02 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Older Vintages , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 Kindred Wines "Amber Ridge Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
The Northern California wine scene is like a giant spreading metropolis. I think I read a few days ago that a building over 20 stories is completed in Shanghai every 12 days or something crazy like that. Northern California wine country is experiencing its own boom of expansion, and wineries big and small are popping up all over. One of my greatest joys is looking through the nooks, crannies, and back-alleyways of this boomtown for brand new wines that have a great future ahead of them. While the search is fun, finding them can be exhilarating -- an adjective that... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 5, 2007 10:50 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
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2001 Raphael Cabernet Sauvignon, North Fork of Long Island, NY
Like many wine lovers, I enjoy exploring the wine regions of the world from the comfort of my own kitchen table. Night after night I open a bottle or two and experience little bits and pieces of the world -- snapshots of places and times captured in flavors and colors and aromas. Some of these explorations don't offer much return on the investment. There's a lot of wine out there, and much of it is below ordinary in quality, especially from wine regions that often carry labels such as "up and coming." I take extra care and effort to try... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on September 24, 2007 9:41 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 René Noël Legrand "La Chaintrée" Cabernet Franc, Saumur Champigny, Loire Valley, France
Lots of people I know have a "house wine" -- some bottle that they buy in much larger quantities than any other wine and also consume in much larger quantities. A house wine is the inexpensive, drink-with-anything, because-I'd-just-like-a-glass, it-doesn't-matter-if-I-don't-finish-the-bottle, what-goes-with-day-old-pizza wine. In my opinion, every wine loving household should have one. For a lot of people this is clearly the place that Two Buck Chuck holds in their kitchen. I personally prefer to spend between ten and fifteen dollars on my house wine, and I'm constantly picking up random bottles at that price point just to see when I'm going... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on September 7, 2007 5:04 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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1970 Chateau Gazin Pomerol, Bordeaux, France
It shows a particular breed of idiocy that the American public has turned its nose up at a grape as the result of a flippant line in a clever but unremarkable movie. While we have thousands of Americans who now hate Merlot, there are still thousands more who think nothing of throwing down a couple of thousand dollars for a bottle of Petrus after a winning streak in Vegas. I'm also willing to bet that there's a good portion of that latter crowd who don't even know that they're drinking Merlot. Those of us whose wine tastes aren't easily swayed... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 31, 2007 11:58 PM
- Filed under: Older Vintages , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 Bodegas Colomé "Estate" Malbec, Salta, Argentina
Once upon a time, I went to Argentina looking for the good wine. Frankly I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about when it came to Malbec. Most of the ones I had tasted here in the US were mediocre. Only a select few rose to the level of excellent, and none to the level of amazing. Yet there was a long stream of proclamations from various people (you know, the ones whose opinions "count" when it comes to such things) that Argentinean Malbec was the next greatest thing. Scratching my head, I traipsed off to Argentina looking for... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 27, 2007 11:37 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2003 Girard Winery "Artistry" Bordeaux Blend, Napa
You can often tell just how much someone loves Napa wine from their familiarity with the sub-appellations or American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) that divide the larger Napa Valley into select, smaller sections. Many consumers have heard of the Stag's Leap District, and possible Rutherford or Oakville, but there are more than ten other AVAs in the Napa Valley. AVAs are not enough for some people, however, especially those that pursue the most expensive and difficult to acquire wines of Napa. Discussions of the finer points of these wines rarely begin with appellations or AVAs. Instead they invoke individual vineyards... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 25, 2007 10:15 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2001 Enrico Santini "Montepergoli" Rosso, Bolgheri, Tuscany
When I think of Italy as a wine producing country, I tend to think to think of it as ancient. It is the home of thousands of indigenous varieties of grapes, and people have been making wine for centuries, sometimes in the very same spot for dozens of generations. This is certainly true in many of the most established and famous of Italy's wine regions. What I tend to forget is that there are other wine regions which are relatively new, in which the standards for what is good and what is not are still being defined by every new... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 27, 2007 6:59 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Lang and Reed Wine Company, Napa: Current Releases
All of us wine lovers inevitably discover, in the course of our explorations, our own secret wineries. These are the wines that we hold close to our chest, revealing them to those with whom we share only our choicest of morsels, which often include such things as parking spaces, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and great movies and books. As I'm in the business of sharing great wine with readers all the time, I can't really afford to hold much back. But I'd be lying if I told you I had reviewed or written about all my most favorite wineries around the world.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 25, 2007 11:02 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2001 Domaine Joseph Roty "Fontenys" Gevrey-Chambertin, Burgundy, France
I'm a sucker for curmudgeons and iconoclasts in the world of wine. Perhaps these eccentric winemakers play into my romantic notions of the mystery of wine, which I pray never to lose despite my increasingly rational and commercial view of the wine industry. There's just something seductive about a winemaker who does things his own way no matter what anyone says. Joseph Roty's family has been making wine in roughly the same spot in Burgundy for 11 generations, which means that they've had plenty of time to settle into their own ways of doing things. While some winemaking families can... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 20, 2007 10:16 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Wolf Family Vineyards: Current Releases
Napa is increasingly the province of large established wineries with pedigrees that are as long as either their mailing lists or the lines at their tasting rooms on summer weekends. This, of course, is not exactly a fantastic thing, especially when it is accompanied by rising prices for wines bearing the appellation designation. Luckily, as in many other places around the country, Napa is also seeing a resurgence of small, family-run vineyards. The rise of such vineyards alongside the consolidation and increasing corporatization of the wine industry may at first be counterintuitive. How is it that both can be happening... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 16, 2007 10:42 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2004 Spring Valley Vineyard "Frederick" Cabernet Blend, Walla Walla, WA
I'm ashamed of the city I live in. Really. I'm normally so proud at the wine sophistication of San Franciscans. Collectively we support dozens of great wine stores that carry an amazing range of wines, hundreds of restaurants with corkage policies, and we provide a home base for some of the best wine tasting events in the country. So imagine my surprise when I walked into a very large and very prominent wine store (which shall remain nameless) today looking for a bottle of Washington State Cabernet, and there were only two extremely inexpensive ones on offer. That's not what... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 13, 2007 10:17 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2004 Shafer Vineyards "One Point Five" Cabernet , Stag's Leap District, Napa
Winemaking is often a family affair, especially in Europe where the wine often simply carries the family name and where it is made, sometimes for centuries. The winemaking family tradition is alive and well in the United States as well, and just as in Europe it is not at all unusual for the reigns of the winery to be passed from father to son, generation to generation. Of course, that transition between generations is not like a passing a volleyball, or handing off a relay baton. Sure there's a point at which the older generation steps back into "retirement" but... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 31, 2007 10:54 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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1993 Williams Selyem "Rochioli Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, Sonoma
It's not every day that I get to tell the majority of the wine world that they're dead wrong, so forgive me if I savor this a little. There is a widespread belief in critical circles that California Pinot Noir does not age well. Like all blanket stereotypes there is some truth to this, especially among those wines that are made in the lush fruit-driven style that is popular these days. And furthermore it may be true that California Pinot Noir can't age as long as Burgundy can (though we're about a decade away from even being able to put... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 23, 2007 10:22 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Older Vintages , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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Belle Glos Winery, Napa: Current Releases
So let's say you're a winemaker. You have a winery in Napa. You've been making Cabernet for maybe 50 years. You've made a lot of it. You've won a lot of awards. You made more Cabernet. You've made so much Cabernet, in fact, for so many years that your name is nearly synonymous with Napa Cabernet. What happens, then, when one day you decide that you want to make Pinot Noir? In 2001 Chuck Wagner, proprietor of Caymus Vineyards faced this precise problem. Caymus Pinot just doesn't quite roll off the tongue like Caymus Cab, now does it? To be... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 12, 2007 11:10 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2004 Quixote Winery "Quixote" Petite Sirah, Napa
It seems to me that as people get older, especially those who we might consider accomplished and successful, they might feel a bit more license to lighten up or to stir the pot, having already proven themselves a bit to the world. I certainly plan on being a bit more frivolous, eccentric, and quirky if I can afford to in my old age. Napa is filled with a generation of winemakers that could easily rest on their laurels. Over the past thirty years, this group of men and women have created an industry, and most have made their own fortunes.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 17, 2007 9:37 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 Toucan Wines Zinfandel, Arroyo Grande, California
I find out about the wines I review here on Vinography in a lot of different ways. Most common are the large tastings that I attend regularly. I also try to go tasting in wine country whenever I can, making special efforts to stop by new wineries or those to which I've never been. Of course, I also get sent a lot of wine in the mail, from people known and unknown, and I do my share of reading wine magazines. This particular wine, however, I discovered long before it was even harvested and bottled for the first time.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 14, 2007 1:16 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
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2004 Dover Canyon Winery "Alto Pomar" Red Blend, Paso Robles, CA
Some wineries are small because they are new. Some wineries are small because they simply can't be successful enough to get any bigger. And then there are some wineries that are small by choice. Small because that is the only size that makes sense to them. Such wineries are some of my favorites because they are usually the product of interesting people with interesting stories, strong feelings and philosophies, and a commitment to some specific vision for what wine is. Oh yeah. Sometimes they also make great wines. Dover Canyon Winery in Paso Robles is the deliberately small creation of... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 3, 2007 9:21 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2003 Grgich Hills Estate Merlot, Napa
Visitors to Napa Valley, even those on their first trip, have a hard time missing the Grgich Hills winery, which sits prominently on the west side of Highway 29, its flower beds almost pushed right up against the edge of the blacktop. Of course, when the winery was established in the late 1970s there was a lot less traffic on that same highway, and founder Miljenko "Mike" Grgich was a young man. But despite his youth, this Croatian-born immigrant did not lack for experience or acclaim. Indeed, it was partly based on his success as the winemaker for the 1973... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 17, 2007 3:24 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2003 McPrice Myers Grenache, Santa Barbara County
There's a whole new generation of winemakers in California that is only just now starting to become visible to the general public. This group of talented young vintners and their small labels have remained well below most people's radar for two primary reasons: they generally only make a very small amount of wine and many are only winemakers at night and on the weekends -- the rest of the time they have day jobs. That's right, you may be sitting one cube away from a boutique winemaker and not even know it. McPrice Myers didn't get his start as a... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 10, 2007 1:17 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2005 Baker Lane "Hurst Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast
Some people seem to get into the wine business through sheer determination. After years of saving, scraping, dreaming and planning, vineyard or winery ownership is the fulfillment of many people's long held (if not hard earned) fantasies. And then there are those people who somehow seem destined for it -- people whose stories you hear and you think, how on Earth did you manage not to do this earlier? If Stephen Singer was going to fall into one of these categories it would most certainly be the latter. In 2003 he became the proprietor of a small winery called Baker... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 4, 2007 8:41 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
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The Best 2005 Napa Cabernet: Tasting Premiere Napa Valley '07
Who wouldn't want to shop around at this bake sale, especially if there were free samples of everything? I joined nearly 1000 winemakers, restaurateurs, and retailers this past weekend at Premiere Napa Valley, the event which the Napa Valley Vintners Association affectionately refers to as their bake sale. As opposed to Auction Napa Valley, an event whose sole purpose is to raise money for charity, Premiere is a combination of celebration and fundraiser for the Vintners Association. Premiere also happens to be the ultimate Napa insider event -- a place where winemakers and some of their best customers get to... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 27, 2007 10:15 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (6) - TrackBacks (1) - Permalink
Domaine de Nizas, Languedoc, France: Current Releases
I can't tell you how many times I've heard friends say "I can't really afford French wine." Even after I suggest that there are plenty of French wines under twenty bucks, they're still liable to complain that they can't really afford "good French wine." Whenever I have that conversation I find myself wishing I had a backpack full of wines from the Languedoc handy. I'd whip out a bottle and a corkscrew like a gunslinger from the wild west and set them straight once and for all. The Languedoc has been the historical home to most of France's low-end table... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 25, 2007 8:59 AM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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2004 San Sakana Cellars "Los Madres Vineyard" Syrah, Carneros, Sonoma
There are only a few people who wake up one morning after a long professional career and decide that they want to become cabinetmakers. In fact there may be less than a few. But there's something about the pull and the passion of wine that inspires people every day to quit their jobs, or come out of retirement, and become winemakers. It used to be that most of these people had been harboring lifelong dreams of making wine, and after a lot of hard work and savings, they bought an estate in Napa or Sonoma and set about living a... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 17, 2007 5:14 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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NV "The Big Red Monster" Red Table Wine, California
You wouldn't believe the sort of stuff I get in the mail. Consumers are blissfully ignorant of the incredible amount of marketing dollars spent to push wines, not at everyday people, but specifically at journalists. In the last couple of years I've gained a certain amount of visibility in the wine world, and as a result, I receive a pretty steady stream of heavy boxes with "Adult Signature Required. 21 Years or older" stickers on them. Many of these simply contain a few bottles of wine and a letter from a winemaker urging me to try them. But many of... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 13, 2007 10:36 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
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2002 Astrale e Terra Syrah, Atlas Peak, Napa
There's Napa and then there's Napa. For a lot of wine consumers, this four letter word is just synonymous with high quality California wine. For the slightly better informed the word might conjure up images of the broad valley alongside of Highway 29. Those who truly know Napa, however, will tell you that unless you're talking about the Town of Napa, Napa is not one place it is many different places. This phenomenon is not uncommon amongst the world's bigger appellations, and here in the US we've got some of the biggest. Napa is a name that is draped over... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 7, 2007 10:51 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2001 Domain Marcel Deiss "Burlenberg" Pinot Noir, Bergheim, Alsace
Alsace, the oft-contested and much-coveted skinny strip of land between northeastern France and its neighbor Germany is an odd and unique place. Like several other such zones around the world, it has been a part of so many different countries and empires that it enjoys a sort of twilight zone atmosphere, where place names reflect one language, spoken words another, and family histories often both or none of the above. Alsace is also a unique landscape sculpted by both rivers and volcanic events, but bearing the unmistakable and essential traces of a more ancient geological past as the bottom of... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 17, 2007 10:24 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (3) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2005 Segue Cellars "Segue" Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, Sonoma
People have asked me many times if I ever think about making wine. Its something that I would love to do eventually, if only for the opportunity to learn a lot of things about wine that just can't be learned from books or purchased bottles. I'm sure I'd also appreciate good wine even more after struggling to make something passably mediocre in my first attempt. Eventually I know I will need to make wine because, honestly, how can I sit here and criticize the efforts of winemakers without knowing what they go through? This lack of hands-on knowledge must... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 16, 2007 10:35 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (1) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
1961 Hospices de Beaune Emile Chandesais "Cuvée Rousseau Deslandes," Côte de Beaune, Burgundy
I will never be able to taste all the wines out there, no matter how hard I try, just as I'll never be able to travel to all the places I want to go in the world. Wine offers a landscape of exploration seemingly as varied as the world around us, and just as likely to offer up surprises and treasures to those who are intent enough, or lucky enough, to find them. Great wines sometimes just sneak up on you. They are like precious gems, or veins of gold. Many of the main sources are well known and consistently... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 14, 2006 10:41 PM
- Filed under: Older Vintages , Perfect 10s , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
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2002 Altair Bordeaux Blend "Grand Cru," Cachapoal, Chile
Most of the wine that arrives on my doorstep does so predictably. I get a call or an e-mail from some PR or marketing person who wants to know if I take samples, I explain my policy, and then a week later I get a box with some bottles and some technical datasheets and depending on the quality of the wine, maybe a refrigerator magnet or two (if you know what I mean. This bottle of wine, however, arrived most unexpectedly, and mysteriously. As opposed to the usual UPS delivery, it arrived via a special international courier service, with no... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 4, 2006 11:41 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (8) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2000 Poggio di Sotto Rosso di Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy
We all have those special bottles. These are bottles of fluid that is somehow more than wine -- a miraculous mix of wine and memory that are created in some of life's most fantastic moments. This is one of those bottles. Early on in my relationship with Ruth -- the Spring of 2003 -- we took a trip to Tuscany. It was one of those perfect vacations that most people dream about. Perfect weather, fantastic food, gorgeous scenery, you name it. It was an early test of our relationship, and the beginning of her love affair with wine. At that... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on September 4, 2006 10:04 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (7) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink