2006 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Precious Mountain

Lovely nose of berries and cherries with a hint of spice. Reserved flavor of berries in the mouth, some dusty earth and a fine structured finish. This is a very well made wine and I have had enough of the Williams Selyem Pinots over the last year to taste a distinct style. It is more french in style. There is more structure, a bit more acid, but still typically sweet fruit. The wines go well with food, tonight in my case a simple tortilla soup and biscuits. These wines often have an almost perfume like nose of fruit. This one was a bit more forward on the nose and laid back a bit while drinking. Nonetheless, this is a well made and enjoyable Pinot Noir. Pricing on these is a bit of a challenge. They are pretty much all on allocation and so prices are naturally quite high. So for me, this kind of a wine would be for a treat, and it lives up to that challenge comfortably.



Williams Selyem is a noted producer of in particular Russian River Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. The winery tasting notes are here.

WR

2004 Chateau de la Gardine, Chateauneuf-du-Pape

Winter is my favorite time of year to drink Rhone wines. A cold day, a fire, a hearty meal, say beef stroganoff (substituting pork loin for the beef) and voila, a great way to end the day. Okay, in sunny California a cold day does not exactly measure up to the rest of the world's cold days (excluding those of you in Hawaii of course), but cold is relative when it comes to weather. Sure I put on a light windbreaker, rather than a heavy wool overcoat, but it almost feels bundled up. Anyway, to the wine.

This is another K&L Wine Club selection. It is solid if not spectacular. The wine went great with dinner (which was only okay, too much sour cream in the stroganoff blend I think). It was strong with dust and dirt flavor, but also had some very nice spice and a hint of chocolate/licorice nose. It is a deep colored and full bodied wine with good balance. It tastes quite a bit better than the nose right now. I expect this wine will drink very well over the next seven to ten years, but no one would be disappointed opening a bottle and drinking it now.


WR

2006 Achaval Ferrer Quimera

This wine is a K&L Wine Club wine for February and the buyer who found this gem for this price deserves a raise, a bonus or a couple of cases of this stuff as a reward.

This is a rocking good wine, right now!

It is clear that it will be a rocking good wine that you can enjoy anytime between now and 10 years from now if not more. It is a classic Bordeaux style blend out of Argentina. The nose is chocolate and spice, on the tongue it is bright and invigorating. It shows excellent balance and structure with very smooth and elegant finish. There is a light touch of oak in the flavor that I suspect will melt away, but get a bottle and open it now and enjoy it. You will not be disappointed with this wine.

2006 Pax "Obsidian" Syrah Beltramo's 6 of 6

This was the final wine of the flight. It was a shift to Syrah, so it stood out with more up front fruit and punch in terms of flavor impact from the Cabernet's and blends which were all more complex. It tasted great. Plump blackberry and herb nose, with a dark color. The flavor was very rich and lovely spicy bites flavored a long and velvety finish. Clear to see why Parker liked this wine.

I had not heard of Pax wines previously, so as an introduction it was very positive.

This wine finished 5th of 6 in the group. Now that may sound harsh, but quite frankly I would say that Parker has isolated a group of very nice wines here, and absent the Verite being off its game, any one of these wines served to most anyone would produce a very positive reaction.


WR

2005 Roy Red Beltramo's 5th of 6

My friend, who was with me at the tasting, bought a bottle of this and brought it home. It retailed for $95. Talked to him last night and he loved it. The look on his face when he said how he liked it said it all.

The tasting notes were very solid. Great fruit, good balance, a wine of depth and subtlety. This wine also should have many years ahead. It is a classic Bordeaux style blend, Cabernet, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Lovely wine, something that all types of wine drinkers can really enjoy. I think that it will also be exceptional with food in a couple of years. Right now bursting with fruit.

Roy Estate is located in Napa.

2nd place out of 6. Not really competition for the Araujo, but still a great wine.

WR

2005 Kapcsandy "State Lane" Cabernet Beltramo's 4th of 6

This wine was good. It was well made, showed as very young, which it is and seems like it would have a long life. The fruit was strong blackberry and cherry, with quite a lot of pucker on the finish. The tannins will die back and this wine will be very good. All the same, at $180 a bottle I really could only be a big fan if someone else was paying.

Kapcsandy on the web. They have a cool crest.

3rd place of 6.

WR

2005 Araujo Cabernet Beltramo's 3rd of 6

During the tasting I was standing and chatting with a husband and wife who were tasting. The husband was not really taken with any wine but this one, and even though the price of this wine was noted at $265 a bottle it was the one wine in the tasting that he said he would consider buying. The others, nice to good, but not worth the triple digit, or near prices.

He was right.

Araujo Estate is a Napa cult wine. The prices are high, it is very hard to get unless you are already on the mailing list.

This wine was marvellously balanced. The fruit was luscious. The tannins sweet and round. The finish was long and delightful. The nose was hints of plum, berries and vanilla. I have not had any of these previously, but have read that vanilla is a flavor that predominates. I have to say it again lush and balanced. Truly an outstanding wine today and I would suspect for many years to come.

Clear and convincing 1st of 6.

WR

2005 Dominus Beltramo's 2nd of 6

Dominus is a "name" wine. It has tremendous heritage from its french roots (not literaaly) and it has been a very successful brand from Napa.

This wine was good, not great. Plenty of fruit, too much acid, and tart tannins. would clearly be much better in a few years. This is consistent with my experience with Dominus which has shown them to be long lived Napa wines compared to most. They are not in the Dunn category, but within the last year I opend a 1997 to enjoye with a meal and after decanting and letting it rest for a couple of hours it was still vibrant with fruit and very enjoyable.

4th of the 6 wines tasted.



WR

2001 Verite Le Desir Beltramo's 1 of 6

Another Beltramo's tasting. This one was of Robert Parker 95+ rated wines. The tasting included three whites that I am not reviewing here. They were all three good, but the reds were the draw so here goes quick notes.

The Le Desir was closed and low in fruit, really low in everything. Many of you will have heard the phrase that a wine is going through a "dumb" phase. This may have been the case here. Based on this tasting I could not recommend this wine to anyone at any price. It just never came to life.

Verite site is located here. You will note if you take a look through their wines that they have a history of great ratings. In the past I have had both Le Muse and La Joie and enjoyed them quite a lot, so I would not draw any big conclusions from this tasting.

In any case, last of six tasted on this day. I would be interested in trying it again a year from now and see what come out then.

WR

2000 Leoville-Las Cases Redux

So, two nights after opening this I went back to the bottle that had sat room temperature on my counter, with a simple stopper in the bottle.

My original note is here.

About 70% of the time I do this, I take a taste and pour out the glass and the bottle. 30% of the time, funny things have happened. Some just odd, others very enjoyable.

This was more than enjoyable. The wine had evolved wonderfully, developing some complexity, continuing to give the fruit with both strong and subtle flavors that it showed originally and the tannins had smoothed down beautifully. The finish was long and delightful.

It is so great when the 30% happens like this. It confirms for me that this wine will drink remarkably well for many many years to come.



WR

2006 Michel Picard Corton Clos des Fietres Beltramo's 8 of 9

This wine was a mystery. The nose was subdued. It really did not give off much of anything. The wine itself started with a burst of tannin and acid, carried along with some big berry fruit. It certainly stuck with you as it literally finished all of the way down my throat. I have some experience with good Burgundy, but not really that much with older wines. Some that I have had have been very good, others just weak and dead. This wine must be built to last. It has the pieces to be very good, but I would have a very difficult time playing the odds on that actually happening. I just really do not see the fruit coming forward, or perhaps the tannins resolving away sufficiently that this will end up a great bottle. And at $90, it would need to be very good to justify its price.

6th place out of 9.

WR

2006 La Pousse d'Or Corton Clos du Roi Beltramo's 9 of 9

Okay, this was the best wine of the group by quite a margin. It was also the most expensive at $115 per bottle.

What made this special? First the nose was a beautiful fragrant blend of sweet strawberry and blackberry. The nose was special. Then it was followed by a wonderful fresh burst of fruit on the tongue, followed by a great slightly tart slightly sweet finish. The finish was lovely. Everything one looks for in a fine pinot from France. The fruit the fine wine making, structure, taste the works.

Definitely and easily 1st of the 9 wines.


North Berkeley Imports has the scoop on the La Pousse the winery.

And that concludes the Beltramo's tasting notes.

WR

2005 Joseph Voillot Pommard "Clos Micault" Beltramo's 7 of 9

This wine starts with a dark color and right away on the nose backs it up with a heavy berry nose, mixed with a slightly burnt hint. This wine was the most alcohol rich of the group from tasting and it had a slightly glycerin silky flavor which I almost never associate with pinot noir grapes. It was quite pleasant to taste, my guess is that it benefited as against the other wines due to the extra year of aging, but I think it will be a much more complete wine in three or four more years. Right now it is a bit disjointed, but when it settles down it should be quite good.

2nd place out of 9.

WR

2006 La Pousse d'Or Volnay "Clos des 60 Ouvrees" Beltramo's 6 of 9

Nose of berries and a lovely ruby color. Fresh fruit starts off the mouth and opens up with strawberry hints. It is very light, but with excellent structure and balance, making it a very solid wine. Would be great with veal or game hen.

3rd place out of 9.

WR

2005 Bruno Clair Savigny-les Beaune "La Dominode" Beltramo's 5 of 9

This was a bit of an odd one. It was closed in the same way that the Mongeard-Mugneret, and on the first sip I thought it was going to be a very similar experience, but then out of no where a nice delicate fruit found its way to the front. The acid bite up front was not really that strong, but it had nothing to balance with at first. In the end it did not open up much either, so hard to feel good about it as a wine, but it seems like it would have more potential.

7th out of the 9.

WR

2006 Mongeard-Mugneret Savigny-les Beaune "Les Narbantons" Beltramo's 4 of 9

This was a very closed wine. Essentially no nose in the glass. Follow that up with the taste of chalky dirt and gravel. Not a revelation. Clearly this wine is not ready for this type of tasting. Even 15 minutes later when you could start to sniff some strawberry hints on the nose, the flavor in the glass was not there. Not really fair to judge a bottle like this, it clearly needs much more time to show its true nature.

8th place out of 9. Just can't rate it well, if it cannot show well.

WR

2006 Simon Bize et Fils Savigny-les Beaune "Les Fournaux" Beltramo's 3 of 9

Berry/cherry nose, lovely color in the glass. Starts with a tight acid bite, but loosens up and has a nice dark fruit, blackberry(?), flavor and a long pleasant softening finish. Nice wine, drinkable now, drinkable in a couple of years I am sure.

4th place out of 9.

WR

2005 Chateau de la Maltroye Chassagne Montrachet Rouge "La Boudriotte" Beltramo's 2 of 9

This wine started flat on all accounts, opened up on the nose a bit, with Cinnamon and ginger(?). The taste was bitter, strong tannin and acid with no balancing fruit that I could discern. Gave up hoping it would come back.

9th place out of 9.

WR

2005 Tollot-Beaut Chorey-Cote de Beaune, Beltramo's 1 of 9

Simple, open strawberry nose, moderate structure. Quite drinkable today, but this is not going to last for years.

5th place out of the 9 wines.

WR

Beltramo's January 31 Red Burgundy Tasting

The next sequence will be a very brief set of notes on 9 French Burgundies. Prices range from $30 to $115. Beltramo's has a very functional tasting area, they Vinturi the wines as the decant, and the pour is a controlled 1 oz pour with a pour device. The have good tasting glasses and have a new tasting every weekend. I am on a roll right now and later today will hit the Parker 95+ wines tasting they are having.

Sorry no pictures or website, except for my favorite for the group. I will list the wines place for the flight, 2nd of 9 or whatever. I primarily use the wine quality as the measure, but when I break a tie, I typically give the break to the wine that is a better price. When I do this type of tasting, I realize the wines are not really in competition, but it is a natural way of thinking about the tasting. It tends to be the case for me that one or two wines stand out positive, one or two wines stand out negative and the others jumble together without much to differentiate them, so take that into consideration if you are looking at the rankings.

WR

2008 Lewis Vin Gris Syrah

The fourth of four wines at the K&L Lewis tasting. Spent $10, enjoyed four wines that are all good to excellent.

This is a delightful rose. Not what you want to be drinking in February with a light drizzle falling outside, but certainly something to enjoy on a warm to hot summer day, refreshingly chilled. It has very nice fruit, a nice balance of acid for some pop and a very nice sweet/tart blend flavor in the mouth. I think it was served a bit warm for this tasting, but it did allow it to bring out its flavor.

This would be great with a summer BBQ chicken salad mixed with corn and carrots and a mild cream dressing.

I would only quibble with the price, given that there are many very fine summer rose that come in around $15, rather than $25.

WR

2007 Lewis Barcaglia Lane Chardonnay

Another chardonnay, third of four wines. This was more subtle than the reserve, although not by much. It is still a classic California chardonnay, with some spice on the nose and lovely pear, honey flavor in the mouth. I liked this one better as it was a bit less overwhelming and readers will know I like a more steely, gravelly wine. I felt this wine was much more well balanced, with a nice finish of fruit and acid.

WR

2007 Lewis Reserve Chardonnay

The second of four posts from the K&L tasting of Lewis wines.

This is a classic California Chardonnay. Big, bold, buttery, can't find a b-word for oaky. Pear and apple and a bit of lemon, citris on the nose, with full mouth soaking chardonnay. It was not perfectly balanced, although I thought the acid was sufficient, my friend felt is was lacking. Still, if you love the California Chardonnay, then this is a wine for you.

The Lewis Cellar website is nice with a bit of history of the family and you can also buy.

All of these wines are just being released this week. So this tasting was a pre-release of these wines. Both of the Chardonnays were given more time in the barrel on the lies.






WR

2006 Lewis Reserve Cabernet

Went to a K&L tasting of Lewis wines, this will be one of four notes from the tasting.

This was a great fruit forward Cab with a very strong tannin finish. The tannins were very powerful, so there was quite a bit of pucker power, but they also had enough sweetness and following on the lovely fruit, made a nice glass. This Cab is big and bold and I think be a real treat in another 5-7 years, when some of the tannin bite will have smoothed out, but the fruit will still be very vital. The color of this wine is also a marvel, it is inky black, with almost no translucence, and that was the case even with a small one ounce pour.

K&L has tastings in the Redwood City store on Friday evenings and Saturdays. This tasting included the Lewis's, Randy and his wife Debbie, behind the bar pouring. There was a pretty strong crowd and I was there with a friend so did not get much chance to talk to the Lewis's. It was clear the group was enjoying the wines.

WR

2000 Leoville-Las Cases

"A tour de force in winemaking" no less authority than Robert Parker.

I opened this tonight on a whim. It is a very nice bottle of wine, but I felt like something special, I have a few of these and have not tried one in well more than a year. It is still a long way from being a special wine. But all the elements are there. The fruit is full, with great subtle flavors. I sniff spice and licorice and cherry, and taste the berry coming through still somewhat strong tannins. I am sure that these tannins will mellow over the next few years and I will probably wait at least another year if not longer to break out another one of these.

I have no doubt this will be a great wine, but unlike many much more reasonably priced wines I have been drinking lately, it is not really for drinking now. It requires more time to fully achieve what the winemaker was aiming to deliver.

The winery does not seem to have an online presence, but here is a wikipedia entry.

WR

2006 Joel Gott 815 Cabernet

This is a very enjoyable Cabernet, even at this very young age. It drinks beautifully. It is a deep ruby, very clear red. The most notable flavor on the nose for me is coffee. It is a lovely subtle flavor blended with berry.

The wine on the tongue is equally delightful. Much bolder than the nose, it has great blackberry tones and the tannins deliver a solid integrated finish. I think it would be very interesting to taste this wine again in three or four years and see what the time has done for it. My instinct is that it will develop very nicely. It is not a wine built for twenty years, but a bit of age would turn it from something that is nice to enjoy now, to something much more special.

The price is under $20 for this wine, but you could do much worse for many more dollars. Great with a grilled steak or steak burger.

You can find out about the entire line of Joel Gott wines here.






WR

2004 Cloud 9 Composition

This wine was flat and uninspiring. The fruit was bland, the acid and tannins were both strong. I doubt it will ever come around as a bottle and could not recommend it over many $5 bottles that I have had. It comes in at over $30 so it is very disappointing.

It has a very stylish label.

It comes from a winery up in the foothills around Murphy's, an area that I have always liked but never really believed produced superb wine. The grapes are Napa, so the pedigree seems like it has a chance. Unfortunately, no luck.

WR

2005 Whitehall Lane Cabernet

Glycerin, silky unctuous, oh, I forgot I am not Robert Parker. This wine is a great example of what many Napa wineries are trying to deliver these days. A fruit forward, bold, silky smooth Cabernet. For me, I quickly fell in and out of love with this style. There are times when I really want a glass of wine that hits this profile, but most of the time, I drink with food these days. That means, looking for something that is a bit less ostentatious on it own and something that compliments the food.

This wine is nice and if you like this style, I think it is a very well made example of this type of Cabernet. The fruit is bursting with berry and yet it has a long finish, that is where the silky feeling hits. It was a bit alcoholly in the first pour from the bottle, but that seemed to fade out very quickly. All in all a good bottle of wine.

Whitehall Lane is located in the heart of Napa Valley.

WR

2005 Louis Martini Cabernet

This is a deep dark ruby wine with a nice nose with spice and berry and the taste is a very fruit forward flavor. It is a big wine with sweet tannins nicely integrated into the fruit. I must say that it has been a long time since I have had such a fulfilling Cabernet at such a great price. I got this for under $20 at Safeway (did I mention they are having a very strong sale) about two weeks ago and bought another bottle as I walked down the aisle yesterday because it was excellent at any price. Definitely give it a spin if you see it. You may want to pick it up by the case once you do.

Martini is owned by Gallo but has its own website for its wines.

WR

2005 Block No. 45 Pinot Noir

This is an inexpensive pinot from California. It appears to be from the central coast, but the bottle does not say where the grapes were grown. It was fine. Nothing special, don't go looking for it. If you are served it at some social event, it will be more than drinkable, but you would not go out of your way to say, wow, I need the name of that wine.

No winery to link to and no place to find the label. Sorry.

WR

2004 Arrowood Cabernet

Drank this over two nights. The first night it was closed and took over three hours to open up even a little. You can sense the fruit, but it is deeply buried underneath the tannins. The tastings notes I have read suggest it should have been more open, but for me it took quite awhile for the fruit to mix it up with the tannins.

Second night, great transformation. The fruit came right to the surface. The tannins dropped into the background and were sweeter and resolved better into a long finish. A keeper, but probably not going to be at its best for five years or more.

I got it for a good price as Safeway has a lot of wine on deals right now. It was around $30, which is actually reasonable for finer California Cabs. Worth it to buy and put away for awhile.

Arrowood has a nice website and lovely winery.

WR

2006 Hartley Ostini Hitching Post Generation Red

Wow, the title for this wine is a mouthful. I have been drinking the Hitching Post Pinot Noirs for several years. I tried them the first time a few years back when the California Central Coast was making its break from Napa and creating its own distinctive wines. I know that it was happening long before that, but it was very regional, as most wine is, and so it was a well established region long before it showed up on my radar.

In any case, I would not recommend this wine. However, it is a fine wine, especially for the price. It is a blend of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Refosco and Syrah. It is a strong blend and has a powerful nose and an in your face flavor from the cork popping on. So why not recommend it, well it is a wine for someone who is willing to try something unique that does not fit the mode. Most people who ask me for a recommendation are looking for something that they can relate to. A cab, or pinot or chardonnay. This wine does not fit. I was a nice journey off the beaten path, but if you have read my reviews, you will note that I tend to enjoy wine. Diversity is my spice. The only real issue I had, and again for the price it is not a big quibble, was the finish. It ended with a very bitter taste. Not sure what gave it that hard bite at the end, but it did certainly diminish the experience.

One last comment. The wine includes Refosco grape. It is one I had never heard of. That is not that shocking, but it is always fun to poke around and learn new lessons on wine. It is a grape from the north of Italy and Slovenia. A dark, thick skinned grape that tends to be tannic. I wonder it I have discovered the "bitter" taste afterall.

WR

2007 Yalumba Bush Vine Grenache

This is a light, fruity, translucent wine with great plummy hints. It also has a noticeable strawberry overtone and the blend is quite pleasant. It is well balanced with lively acidity and a tart but pleasing finish. Unlike many Shiraz of Australia, it is also not overly alcoholic.

This wine comes from the Barossa Valley, a place I genuinely hope to visit some day not too long from now. Bush vines are very old vines that grow in bush like style and get quite gnarly.

I do not have a strong "impression" of grenache. I know it is a primarily grape in many Rhone style wines. Somehow that has not given it a defined character for me. But this wine, relatively inexpensive, is very drinkable now. It has a character almost to a Beaujolais. It is not, but it could stand in for one. I would drink this with almost any food and it delivered alongside a simple Matzo Ball soup tonight.

A link to the Yalumba web site.



WR

2006 Santa Margherita Chianti Classico

Went to a local italian restaurant on Friday night. The food is usually very good, it is close by and the staff are very strong. So, it is a spot we go every now and then. The Santa Margherita Chianti was suggested, and since I have long been a fan of their Pinot Grigio I thought why not.

Pros, the wine is fresh and sturdy. Cons, the wine is fresh and sturdy. What?

This wine is too young. The Italian's used to be pretty tough on bottle age for the chianti classico. It needs some time to mature. It will be good I think, except the whole sturdy part. One of the things that I like about a chianti is the fresh fruit, but lighter style that predominates. This one is a bit more structured. I think it will end up loosening up and turning into a nice pleasant food wine, but it will need some of the structure to fall back.

We shall see.

Link to the Winery.

WR

1998 Spottswoode Cabernet

Was out at a Booster club dinner and a wine drinker friend was kind enough to share some a very nice 1998 Spottswoode Cabernet. It was a Magnum and showed in the way it poured still very fresh and tasty. It was a lighter velvety wine, with good fruit. It was a bit closed, I think it was a bit too cold. As the time went by the flavor got better. It is not the sort of bottle that you would run out tomorrow to find, but it was very nice and for the occassion many, many steps above what was placed on the tables.

All in all a great evening.

This label is the 2005, but looks very similar. The winery website is found here.










Back in awhile.

WineRascal

Welcome to the WineRascal

So about nine months ago I spent awhile experimenting on posting wine tasting notes on wines I drank. Here was my first post. As you can see it was signed by leh. Since August, I have been busy with many things, but around the beginning of the year decided to get back to posting. While I was at it, I thought about the point of this for me and decided that I would like to see if I could actually capture some real readers.

So Voila -- a new blog name on a personally owned URL (first in my life) and the birth of the WineRascal. Why the rascal? People who know me don't think of me as much of a rascal, but for me this is an outlet that is different and I can do what I want. No rules for me. Anyone posting, there is only one key rule, that is respect for others. I may make up others if I really do catch an audience, but for now that one should handle most issues.

Back in awhile.

WineRascal