huevos con vino

You may have noticed that this blog has not been updated all that much recently.  Whatever.  I haven’t had time or patience for it, I’m afraid.  But after a month or so, I do have a lot to say once again!

The best wine I have tried lately has to be the 2001 Conde de Vimioso Reserva, a “Vinho Regional” from the Ribatejano area of Portugal. I originally bought this wine for Wine Blogging Wednesday #38, but I ony got around to opening this wine a few nights ago.  Whoops.  Anyway, it’s darn good! Here are my notes on the 2001 Conde de Vimioso Reserva:

• Aroma: Spicy black cherry and leather, blackberry jam; very focused fruit bouquet without much distraction at first, but with a bit of smoke on the end; opens into a more cocoa and toffee bouquet with bright acidity.
• Flavor: Buttered black bread, blackberries and black currants, a mild briny spice on the mid-palate and then that same sweet buttered bread aftertaste; after some air time, the wine becomes more acidic and tannic, with a twist of port on the finish.
• General impression: A really nice wine at first, leaves me wanting more right away; settles into a slightly tannic, full-bodied red wine that could age longer and be even better. Sort of like a Silver Oak Alexander Valley but with more vanilla and brown sugar notes on the first day; the second day was a little hotter and more acidic at first, but then became settled and nice once more.

Other wines I have tried lately and enjoyed:

• 2006 Erath Pinot Noir - A young, fresh fellow that tastes good now; very reasonably priced under $20 (people who don’t drink much Pinot will be very impressed with this wine if you tell them it costs $35-$40).
• 2005 Selbach-Oster Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese Trocken - The name is a mouthful, and so is this wine…mild, very faintly sweet Spatlese; needs more bottle aging for sure.
• 2002 Van Duzer Dijon Blocks Pinot Noir Willamette Valley - Hot damn!  Delicious wine.  Big, vibrant aroma and flavor, very fruity; very nice…the age helped a lot.
• 2005 Lachini ‘S’ Pinot Noir - Not ready yet, keep yours in the cellar if you have some.
• 2004 Domaine Ehrhart Pinot Auxerrois Val St. Gregoire - Nice, balanced, smooth white wine; refreshingly mild lemon zest with a pine needle aftertaste; smoother with salty food and seafood; worth buying again for this price ($10!).
• 2006 DiStefano Sauvignon Blanc - Delicious apricot and citrus flavors, rich bouquet, absolutely worth getting again with seafood or curry!  Good value, too, at $15 and under; very strong for a Sauvignon Blanc.
• 2003 Hestan Cabernet Sauvignon - Dove into my private stash for this one; Took 60-90 minutes to open up, but when it did it was quite good…very floral and spicy, with jammy fruits and meaty backbone. Nice, lots of character; not a typical CA Cab.  Not quite worth $80/bottle, though, but maybe someday when it matures more fully.
• 2004 Avignonesi Vino Nobile de Montepulciano - Made with nothing but the Prugnolo Gentile clone of the Sangiovese grape; blackberry, raspberry, pepper on the nose and palate; deeper earthiness began to show after 20 minutes; dry tannins after 30 minutes; nice but not overwhelming, probably needs some bottle aging.

And finally, a trio of dessert wines from the Niagara region of Ontario, Canada:

• 2004 Henry of Pelham Riesling VQA Niagara Ice Wine - Rich, creamy, smooth, sweet; very nice!
• 1999 Stoney Ridge Gewurztraminer VQA Niagara Ice Wine - Pure caramel apple with hazelnuts, very tasty and smooth but a little different from the other two so hard to compare directly.
• 2004 Magnotta Cabernet Franc Ice Wine - Sweet, sugary pomegranate dessert wine, very nice; my favorite of this trio.

As you can see, I’ve been trying to beat my record from last year, when I consumed about 160 different wines.  I’m up to about 120 this year, and the holidays promise to be exciting for wine!

Ahh, the 2000 Betz Family “La Serenne” Syrah.  I found it today for $34.99 at the local supermarket.  In fact, they had both the “La Serenne” and the “La Côte Rousse” Syrah releases from 2000, both for $34.99.  I went with the La Serenne release because it was 14.3% alcohol compared to 14.8% in the other.  At 110 cases, La Serenne is certainly hard to track down at any price, so I’m excited to try this wine.  It helps to live in the Seattle area if you’re looking for Betz wines.

Apparently the 2000 La Serenne Syrah was sourced from the Boushey vineyard in the Yakima Valley.  I’ll assume that’s a good thing as I know very little about the individual quality of Yakima Valley vineyards.  But I know what I like, so we’ll see how this wine fares.  Here are my notes: 

• Aroma: Confused at first, wants to show earthiness and black fruit but there’s something holding it all back so it clearly needs some time decanting; after about 45 minutes, things get interesting as the bouquet comes together with black currant preserves, leather, and tobacco.
• Flavor: Potent Kalamata olives, smoky bacon, black fruit, briar, and a stinging tobacco charge that’s almost like taking a drag on a really nice cigar; gorgeous, dry tannins emerge fairly swiftly, along with deep black currant, blackberry, and roasted walnut flavors.  Wow.
• General impression: Stains your teeth and stings your tongue with flavors; very complex and requires a lot of time to sort itself out; after each sip, you look forward to the next one.

Overall, La Serenne rates a 9.5 on my “ball buster” scale, which I just invented as a way to describe this wine.  Wow, it’s a nice wine!  It’s well worth a purchase at $35, although I doubt you’ll be able to find it that cheap.  All of the 2005 wines are sold out through the winery, and when you look at the aftermarket you probably see what I see: $45 is the absolute lowest price for any “La Serenne” Syrah from any year.  For a single vineyard, single varietal wine, that’s about right these days.  Perhaps I should go get more….

POSTSCRIPT: I went back and found no more of the La Serenne, but there was one bottle of La Côte Rousse sitting on the shelf.  I grabbed it and ran.  I paid first, though, before running.  So I’m excited to see how these two Syrah releases compare.  Also, I finished the La Serenne bottle tonight and it was dynamite!  Had a nice menthol aftertaste that was really compelling…I wish I had purchased both bottles when I had the chance.

Now this WBW has a great theme: Petite Sirah.  I love Petite Sirahs and they get fairly little attention in my experience.  The Wannabe Wino is the perfect hostess for this WBW, in part because she may actually like Petite Sirah more than me. 

I hope to participate by December 12th…should be fun!