huevos con vino

Take a look in the Wine Bible and you won’t find it.  It rates a few sentences on page 427 of The Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia (4th edition).  There is an entire page devoted to it in The World Atlas of Wine (5th edition).  Page 253, in case you have that book committed to memory.

What is it, exactly?  It is Slovenia, one of the world’s leading consumers per capita of wine (4th by one recent count).  And their wine is fairly obscure by American standards.

We went over to our old friends’ house tonight for some food, some music, and some face time with their new baby.  But when we showed up, they sprung a surprise on me: They wanted to open their bottle of 2001 Cigoj Cabernet Sauvignon, which they had brought back from a trip to Slovenia!  I was excited because, hey, Slovenian red wine is scarce outside of Slovenia.  And this particular winery definitely doesn’t ship to the US, nor do they export their wine through a distributor.  It is safe to say that, in the town of Seattle, there was only one bottle of 2001 Cigoj Cabernet Sauvignon available for consumption tonight.

The bottle itself has only one label, and here it is:

Bottle of 2001 Cigoj Cabernet Sauvignon, “product of Slovenia” 

My friends were concerned that all of their schlepping around Slovenia might have turned this wine into a big batch of vinegar.  Luckily, the wine was good: dry, robust, smoky and woody in a good way, acidic…very nice with some good, spicy food.  This food, for example, was a good pairing:

Dinner at our friends’ house 

That’s the sort of spread you get at my friends’ house when they say, “Oh yeah, be sure to eat dinner first, we won’t really have much prepared for you to eat.”  And that was before dessert.

Back to the wine.  Or, more precisely, the wine region.  In Slovenia a “suho” wine is a “dry” wine, according to this useful source.  You can tell from the label of the 2001 Cigoj (pronounced “Cigoy”) that this wine is a dry red.  The very first word on the label is “suho.”  As a wine-producing country, Slovenia focuses on white wine varietals more than red.  A few common white varietals in Slovenia include:

• Pinot Blanc (called “Beli Pinot” in Slovenia)
• Chardonnay
• Traminer (called “Traminec”)
• Riesling (called “Renski Rizling”)

Cabernet Sauvignon is an uncommon varietal in Slovenia.  This link provides more context for geographical locations where this grape grows in the Slovene landscape.  The short answer is that Cabernet Sauvignon is grown primarily in the west, near Italy, according to one source.  The Cigoj Cabernet Sauvignon comes from the Vipava Valley, one of the few Slovene locations for Cabernet Sauvignon.  The venerable Vipava 1894 winery is the biggest winery in this area, and its name lends itself to very vociferous alliteration.

If you are in the market for a Slovene wine, and you should try one sometime because they’re quite interesting, you can find a few Vipava Valley wines through Wine-Searcher.com.  Try searching for “vipava” or “rumeni” for a few bottles here and there.  As for the 2001 Cigoj, I’d recommend it.  But good luck finding a bottle for yourself!

They say you should drink Zinfandel soon after release.  When I look at some of the most popular, highest-end restaurants in the Seattle area, the Zinfandels on their wine lists seem to support this notion: no Zins over 2-3 years old.  And yet the good people at Radio-Coteau claim their 2005 Von Weidlich Zinfandel will age through 2017.  After trying some myself, I am inclined to agree.

It’s no secret that I love the wines of Radio-Coteau.  I mean that literally: If you search Google for “radio coteau,” my blog comes up 4th in the search results.  Add in the hyphen and I’m still in the top 10.  I guess I write about these guys fairly often, or else Google likes my blog.  Either way, I do love Radio-Coteau wines.  It seems fitting that this blog gives them a lot of good publicity and gets ranked so highly in the Google search results since “Radio Coteau” means “word of mouth” by one definition.  I’ve never seen such a word of mouth operation, either: I occasionally see other high class Pinot Noir bottles in stores, but I never see any Radio-Coteau.  I ask sommeliers about the wine and get the same blank stare every time.  And yet Eric Sussman continues to sell out vintage after vintage of his Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Syrah, and Chardonnay.  Must be a lot of words coming out of a lot of mouths, eh?

I decided last night that I wanted to open a wine from my “cellar.”  My method for doing something like that is extremely techno-nerdy: I went to CellarTracker.com, searched my entire collection by location, and then sorted all the bottles in my cellar by their respective drinking “windows.”  That is to say, I tried to see which wine should be consumed as soon as possible.  The drinking window for 2005 Von Weidlich Zinfandel is 2007-2008, according to the community of people who use CellarTracker.  This timeframe is at odds with the 2017 date that Radio-Coteau claims, but I decided to open the Zinfandel anyway and see for myself whether it could age another 10 years.

Here are a few intriguing details about this wine:

• 15.6% alcohol - not too high for a California Zin (I’ve had much higher), but no lightweight
• 265 cases produced - that’s a small production run!
• $42/bottle - see previous point…not cheap, but not common either
• $40-$60/bottle on the aftermarket - clearly this wine has its followers.  A good sign.
• Grapes taken from vines planted in 1937 and 1946 - those are some old vines, although they aren’t the oldest in California

So, how does this wine smell and taste?  Pretty darn good.  Read on:

• Aroma: An extremely fruity and slightly floral bouquet at first, with fresh black cherry, raspberry, black plum, and blackberry mixed with an oak and vanilla backbone.  Some nutmeg and clove spice as well.  A complex, inviting bouquet for sure.
• Flavor: Bold and warming.  Spicy with black and cayenne pepper plus the promised bourbon spice as well.  A definite taste of Mexican (spiced) chocolate.  The acid is there but subtle, the tannins are most definitely there but well integrated after some time in the glass.  Very spicy indeed, but nice.  After a while, there is a black cherry flavor to go with the spice; the combination of the two is delicious.  It isn’t a cola flavor, though, as there is absolutely no citrus (cola is really just lemon, cherry, and vanilla).  My wife detects some coffee flavor as well, which is quite possible.
• General impression: Wow!  As The Who might say, “Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy.”  I can think of no better way to summarize this wine.

My only complaints about this wine are twofold: Why didn’t I buy more, and why didn’t I wait until it was dark and cold outside before I opened the one bottle I had?  This is great stuff, and while it might age well for another 10 years, there is no way I could wait that long.  And based on word of mouth, this wine might be hard to find in the near future.

I spent part of the Memorial Day weekend at my mother’s house in Hillsboro, Oregon.  My wife and I had a great time, especially with their new puppy, who is extremely cute.  We also enjoyed sitting outside in the heat (on Saturday, anyway) underneath the roof of the new gazebo that my mother and stepfather built.  Of course, all that sitting and sweating made us thirsty.  I tried a couple of good beers and lambics, such as the venerable Lindemans Cassis and an oak-aged amber ale called La Roja.  I thought La Roja was decent, but it’s hard not to love that Lindemans Cassis lambic, which might be one of the best vegan beverages I’ve ever had.

Just in time for Memorial Day, Costco had Copper River salmon on sale for $12.99/pound, which is absurdly cheap for this particular type of fish.  Copper River salmon, in my opinion, is extremely good because of its high natural fat content.  A fillet of Copper River salmon is marbled with fat in the same way as an excellent porterhouse steak.  When you cook this fish, all of that fat melts and keeps the meat quite juicy and flavorful.  That’s my theory, anyway, as to why I end up eating as much Copper River salmon as I can every year.

For dinner on Saturday, we had some grilled Copper River salmon, fresh green beans, bread, salad…the works.  We all agreed that the 2002 Domaine Drouhin Willamette Valley Pinot Noir (AKA Classique) would be an excellent pairing.  I also spotted the half-bottle of 2002 Domaine Drouhin Arthur Chardonnay in the fridge, so we opened that as well.  I do not have detailed tasting notes this time around, so I will instead give you my impression of each wine:

• The 2002 Domaine Drouhin Classique Pinot Noir is a wonderful wine, rich with black cherry and raspberry aromas and flavors.  The texture is smooth, with acidity and tannins that tasted well integrated after 30 minutes of decanting.  As a pairing with salmon, this wine remains the champion in my book, bested only by DDO Laurène.
• The 2002 Domaine Drouhin Arthur Chardonnay is terrific, with lots of nice peach, apricot, and citrus flavors.  We opened this half-bottle straight out of the fridge, where it had been for quite some time.  After letting the wine warm up a bit, mild aromas of almond and lemon wafted from the glass.  Plenty of crisp acidity made this wine quite tasty with the balsamic vinegar salad dressing.

I have never had a chance to try a lightly-aged Arthur Chardonnay.  I am now inspired to save my bottles for several years.  I wonder if Central Market still has that bottle of 2001 Arthur sitting in their special wine room….

As for the Classique, I was reminded again why I love Domaine Drouhin wines, particularly as they age.  Each bottle has its own character, and while the Classique releases tend to have a more homogeneous character from bottle to bottle, this particular bottle exhibited a lot more black cherry flavor than others I have tried.  I wonder if it’s the age of the wine that causes this flavor profile to emerge.  Whatever it is, I liked it.

Quite recently, I found myself back at Poco Wine Room in Seattle.  I have written about Poco before, and apparently I was the first person to review Poco on the Internet.  That’s really cool; I didn’t expect to have a scoop, to be sure.

Poco was fun as usual.  I realized this was my 4th trip to Poco and every time I go, I ask myself why I don’t return more often.  Case in point: From 4-6 PM, it’s Happy Hour.  That means $2 off every glass of wine and $8 off every bottle.  The $8 off per bottle is particularly tempting, especially when you’re thinking about getting a bottle of wine that is about $30 at every other time of day.  The selection is also very nice since they try to focus on Washington and Oregon wineries who make slightly unusual releases. 

For example, I thought about getting a glass of Robert Biale Zinfandel, which was one of my favorite wines from my last trip to California.  But at 16.5% alcohol, that wine is a bruiser.  I ended up debating with one of the owners of Poco about Biale: I asked which Zinfandel release they had by the glass, and he tried to tell me that Biale only releases one Zinfandel.  Although I knew he was mistaken (they tend to release 3-4 different bottlings per vintage), I didn’t want to act like a jerk so I said, “Perhaps I was thinking of Syrah.”  An elegant way to get the evening back on track, I think.

I also thought about getting a glass of Washington State Sangiovese, which is quite interesting and which the woman at the next table seemed to like a lot.  I tried a taste of the 2005 River’s Edge Pinot Noir.  I only had a taste from a bottle that was probably just opened, but it was very acidic and too young to drink yet.  Perhaps it needed a couple of hours to decant first, as there was definitely some baked cherry and baking spice flavor in the glass.  In a few years, this wine might be quite nice.  But I only had a taste, and I quickly moved on to the main wine of the evening.

My friend and I settled on a bottle of the 2006 Eagle Haven Madeleine Angevine Siegerrebe.  This wine is made from two grapes that are traditionally associated with German whites: Siegerrebe and Madeleine Angevine, which is one of the “parents” of the Siegerrebe grape (Gewurztraminer is the other parent).  For $20/bottle at Happy Hour, it was hard to turn down this chance to add 2 more varietals to my spreadsheet of varietals that I’ve tasted.

The 2006 Eagle Haven Madeleine Angevine Siegerrebe is a curious white wine.  The blend is 50/50, although there is apparently a 100% Madeleine Angevine release too.  I’d love to try that wine after drinking a lot of this one.  Anyway, this wine is a bit of a curiosity from a winery that is also a bit of a curiosity.  Eagle Haven makes a red apple wine, a blackberry wine, and a winter peach wine, all of which sound like fun to me.  You can read more details about these releases here.  The 50/50 blend had 12.5% alcohol, so it’s quite light and refreshing.  Here are my notes:

• Aroma: Light, fruity, with a balance of apple, citrus, and hay that was nice.  The 50/50 blend keeps the muscat aroma to a minimum.
• Flavor: Semi-sweet, lots of minerality and effervescence at first, well-balanced and lip-smacking.  Green apple and lemon abound, and there is a muscat undertone that apparently comes from the Siegerrebe half of the blend.
• General impression: A great, highly drinkable white wine!  I liked the Humboldt Fog chevre pairing the best, I’d say…this cheese, plus a slice of pear, tasted incredibly good with the Eagle Haven.  Recommended for sure.

If you’d like to know more about the Madeleine Angevine and Siegerrebe varietals, I have linked to a couple of different information sources in this sentence.  Washington State is an excellent site for these grapes, among other odd German varietals.

After Poco, we wound up at The Stumbling Monk where I treated my friend to a glass of De Koningshoeven (nee La Trappe) Quadrupel.  After a couple of these bad boys, we were done for the evening.  But I was happy to have found such a drinkable white wine!  I think the Wannabe Wino would absolutely love this one….

I’m pretty excited about this particular WBW!  It’s an easy one for me in many ways since I live in the Seattle area.  I also grew up in Woodinville for a number of years during my childhood, so I am familiar with Woodinville wine country more than most other Seattleites (sp?). 

So what’s the theme for WBW #34?  Simple: Washington State Cabernet Sauvignon.  Through the Walla Walla Grape Vine is the host for WBW #34, which means this theme makes a lot of sense for her to host. 

I remain unconvinced about WA Cabernet Sauvignon compared to California.  I hope this WBW will help me find a wine I can get behind and advocate to my wine drinking buddies.  Some of the big names in WA Cab Sauv have failed to impress me in the past, though.  We’ll see this time.  I do want to find something a little different; I’m not a fan of Ste. Michelle or Columbia, or any of the other “big box” WA wineries.  There are so many other family affairs that are worth tracking down!

Finally, Poco Wine Room might be a good place to start with regard to finding a good WA Cabernet Sauvignon.  So if you’re wondering where to find a cool WA wine for this challenge, check them out!