huevos con vino

After nearly a year and over 200 posts on my blog, I think I’m ready to review a few wines in earnest.  And what better way to start than with Wine Blogging Wednesday #29?

WBW, as it is called, offers each wine blogger out there the chance to taste a wine that fits with the theme of the month, write up some tasting notes, and get noticed via the host wine blog.  This month, Fork & Bottle is the host blog and the topic is biodynamic wines.  The good people at Fork & Bottle also compiled an extremely helpful list of many biodynamic wineries.  I made sure to add a few to their list, including Lachini.

Speaking of Lachini, I believe I will be reviewing the 2004 Lachini Ana Vineyard Pinot Noir as my entry into WBW #29.  Their wines are produced within the Low Impact Viticulture and Enology (LIVE) guidelines drawn up to ensure sustainability within the Oregon wine industry.  More details about the LIVE program can be found here.  The official Web site for LIVE is here.

When you become a LIVE-certified winery, you also become certified as a Salmon Safe winery.  Lachini is, therefore, safe for salmon and less reliant on synthetic chemicals and pesticides than most other commercial vineyards.  So while the concept of “biodynamic” wine is a little vague with regard to specifics about how to be biodynamic, the real idea is to establish more sustainable agricultural practices and realize that there is more to producing great wine than growing the largest quantity of grapes.  Many boutique wineries practice biodynamism as a matter of course, I think, so I assume it’s really the larger wineries out there that should look at following more sustainable viticultural practices as they pump out thousands of cases of Merlot every year.

Anyway, I have until January 17th to taste and review the 2004 Lachini Ana Vineyard Pinot Noir, a wine that I purchased recently at Whole Foods and that I have wanted to try for over a month now.  WBW #29 seems like an excellent excuse to pull out this 100% Pommard juggernaut and see whether it tastes as good as the 2005 I tried right around Thanksgiving.  I’m also still looking into wine preservation systems; expect a post on that topic soon!

“Dude, you’ll never guess who is getting a shoe shine!”

“Who?”

“Ron freakin’ Jeremy!”

“No way!  I gotta go check that out!”

As I waited for my flight out of Oklahoma City yesterday, which proved a lot more challenging than you might expect for a 30-minute trip betweem OKC and Dallas, I heard this exchange of dialogue several feet away.  Apparently, Ron Jeremy was indeed getting his shoes shined at Will Rogers World Airport yesterday morning.  I have no idea where he was going, but I realized that if I had received a shoe shine when I wanted to go get one, I might have had to wait for Ron Jeremy to finish getting his shoes shined first.  Quite an odd situation.

But before all that, we went out to dinner as a group and I brought along my best bottle of wine: a 2003 Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir Willamette Valley (also known as Pinot Noir Classique).

We went to a restaurant called Caffe Pranzo, which is conveniently located next to a restaurant called Boca Boca, or “Mouth Mouth” in English.  Caffe Pranzo has a much better name and much cheaper/better food, apparently.  Their selections looked more New York than Oklahoma; baked tortellini and Carnegie Deli NY cheesecake certainly rank highly in my gastronomic book.  Anyway, I had been saving this new bottle of Domaine Drouhin for a slightly special occasion, and this dinner seemed very appropriate. 

It looks like the 2004 release comes out in January, so I’m glad I got to try the 2003 before then.  I took this bottle out of my allocation and brought it all the way to Oklahoma City, where I noticed the Metro Wine Bar & Bistro had it on their wine list!  Exciting.  But on to the brief notes:

• Aroma: Somewhat flinty, with deep red fruit and floral essences.
• Flavor: Strong cherry and raspberry flavors with luscious, lip-smacking depth and tannic structure.  A very complete flavor profile, to be sure.
• General impression: Worth every penny!  I think the 2003 is my favorite Classique release yet.

Everyone (all 6 who tried it) loved this wine.  It’s the kind of wine that automatically lends a semblance of profundity and meaning to a meal, and it’s certainly one that people remember from occasion to occasion (”remember that one bottle we had last Christmas?  Oh, is this the same wine?  Hooray!”).  I certainly recommend this wine, particularly if you can find it at a state liquor store for less than $30/bottle, as I have seen in the past here in Washington State.

Since I had an unexpected extra day in Oklahoma, I convinced my aunt-in-law to open up the bottle of 2002 Newton Unfiltered Chardonnay that I bought for her over a year ago.  I got a good deal: Only $39.99 rather than the usual $50-$70/bottle for this wine.  Still, anything over $25 seems expensive to me for a Chardonnay.  Stag’s Leap and Domaine Drouhin make extremely nice Chardonnays for half the price of Newton, so I had high expectations for this particular wine.

Vinography has already reviewed this wine, but I haven’t read it yet as I want to provide an objective, personal review first.  But I’m sure that review is a good one.

One note about this bottle: It stood in a cupboard at room temperature for over a year before we opened the bottle.  We threw it in the fridge for a while before drinking, so it was chilled but it certainly didn’t have the best lifespan leading up to consumption.  So it’s possible the aging process was accelerated a bit; the wine seemed generally fine but with a bit of an odd overtone at the outset that quickly vanished.

• Aroma: It changed quite a bit as the wine warmed and oxidized a bit, from peaches to burnt caramel to honeydew.  Complex, with some serious depth that I wish I could have documented at the time as I drank the wine.
• Flavor: The Newton Web site talks about crispness and pears/apples, and all of that is present here, but the flavor is much more interesting than just a few types of fruit.  It’s hard to explain but this wine is a bit beyond my palate yet, I believe…it’s that complex and unusual.
• General impression: There is a lot going on with this wine, but it’s all good.  The aroma and flavor evolved over the 1-2 hours I spent drinking this wine, particularly as it warmed up.  Very interesting stuff.  I want more!

Great wine, but is it worth the money?  I don’t know…I guess that depends on your budget.  If you can afford the occasional bottle of $55 Chardonnay, Newton is worth a try.  If you can’t afford it, well, I’d just look for Domaine Drouhin Arthur as it’s nearly as good and would probably be equally good after a couple years of aging.

This wine was something of a treat as my grandmother-in-law told me last year that they had consumed it already.  So I put this bottle entirely out of my mind when I came back to visit this year.  When my aunt pulled the bottle out of the cupboard, my first thought was, “Man, I hope that’s still good!”  Luckily, it was good enough to drink fairly quickly!

Today, on my last full day in OKC, I went back to the Metro Wine Bar & Bistro with my aunt and uncle (in-law).  This time, I wanted to try the 2003 Dashe Cabernet Sauvignon; here are my thoughts:

• Aroma: Eucalyptus and mint with cherry and cedar.  A very interesting bouquet.
• Flavor: Lots of solid tannic structure, some acidity due to the youthfulness of the wine, black fruit but with some cranberry; seconday flavors of coffee and chocolate flash across the palate.
• General impression: Too young yet, but has the potential to be a delicious Cabernet Sauvignon one day!

I had an ounce, a taste if you will, and it was good but I’m glad I didn’t get a whole glass.  Instead, I got a whole glass of the 2003 York Creek Cabernet Franc…again.  My aunt did the same and we both loved the wine!

On a separate note, the Cellar Wine Store had Odisea TI Tempranillo and Two Rows Garnacha in stock, both 2004 releases.  Only $30 each.  These wines were in the Spanish wines section, so if you go there be sure to track these down and buy them.  The TI Tempranillo is delicious and lot of fun, and that Two Rows Garnacha is a spice bandit, so to speak.  Delicious stuff.

A short post for now…I just wanted to get those Dashe tasting notes out there.  Also, their Web site says nothing about a Cabernet Sauvignon, so I wonder if it’s even the right site/winery.

Last night, after a long day of driving and some begging on my part, I convinced my wife and brother-in-law to come with me to the Metro Wine Bar & Bistro in Oklahoma City.  When I looked up the Web site for the Metro, I noticed their wine list had a bottle of Titus Cabernet Franc on it.  Very interesting.

A side note: I really like Cabernet Franc and I wish more wineries would grow Cabernet Franc grapes and produce 100% Cab Franc varietal wines.  Only a handful of American wineries seem to attempt 100% Cab Franc wines; even Titus blends their Cabernet Franc with other grapes to produce their “Cabernet Franc” release.  Perhaps this is why I like the Paracombe Cabernet Franc wines so much: They aren’t compromised by other varietals blended into the mix.  Anyway, the inky purple look and silken feel of a good Cabernet Franc is terrific…and I think the York Creek that I had the other day was one of the best in recent memory.

So, as I said, I cajoled everyone into coming with me to the Metro.  It was a good choice as their food is wonderful.  We had:

• French onion soup with actual toast covered with actual melted/roasted cheese on top
• Cedar plank salmon with roast acorn squash, mashed potatoes, and asparagus
• Poached pear and Stilton salad
• Lemon tart with raspberry sauce and blueberries
• Double chocolate/espresso brownie with creme anglaise

The food was great.  But how was the wine?

I ordered the 2003 Titus Cabernet Franc from the wine list.  They brought out a 2004, which I thought would be fine although I knew it wouldn’t be quite as poised as the 2003, which in turn probably isn’t completely ready to be consumed yet either.  But hey, this was my only good chance to try some Titus.

So I asked the waitress to decant the wine, which she did.  It’s an interesting wine, a blend of Cabernet Franc (75%), Merlot (13%), Cabernet Sauvignon (7%), and Malbec (5%).  There are 561 cases of the 2004, and it’s fairly strong at 14.5% alcohol content.  More information can be found here.

How was the wine?  Good question:

• Aroma: Evolved over the course of 60 minutes or so before finally settling into something approaching a “complete” bouquet.  Violets, then bell peppers, then cedar and smoke, and finally black fruit.  A good nose, but a little thin in the end.
• Flavor: The flavor also changed over time; very tannic at first, but once it opened up the wine had more chocolate, violet, sour blackberry, and boysenberry/marionberry essences.
• General impression: Needs more time in the bottle; this one was opened too early but it was still fun.  The tannins and acid will need to level out a bit more first before this wine becomes really nice. 

I guess the verdict is twofold: 1) I like this wine but it needs to be aged for a while, and 2) the York Creek on the Metro wine list is the better wine (but a straight comparison is unfair as the York Creek is 100% Cabernet Franc and a bit older).

Overall, I am glad I got to try a bottle of Titus, but now I want to try one that is a bit older.  The 2001, 2002, and 2003 releases look available online but I need to save my money for bigger and better things….