Sicilian Value

So tonight, I randomly grabbed off our wine rack a 2005 Colosi red wine from Sicily. I bought it a while back from LA Wine Co for $7. 100% Nero d'Avola grapes. Pretty darned good juice, especially for the price. A little musty on the nose - not sure if that's the right term, but it's all I could think of. Medium bodied, straight forward, cherry, red fruit, nice acidity, solid tannin, balanced. The musty scent on the nose also makes a brief appearance on the finish. Definitely a solid food wine. Great value.

Shining Wine

This evening I grilled a marinated skirt steak and wanted a big wine that would hold up to it. So I selected a 2005 Shining Hill Columbia Valley Red Wine. $30 at LA Wine Co.

This is basically the 2nd label of Col Solare, the joint venture between Chateau St. Michelle of Washington and Marchesi Antinori of Tuscany. Col Solare is a wonderful wine, but priced a bit high for us (about $50), so we've only had it once. It is made the same as Col Solare, but basically using the 2nd tier grapes. As I understand it, they intend to release this vintage a year before the Col Solare is released. This first vintage, however, was released at the same time as the 2005.

Very bold wine. Made of 58% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Syrah, 3% Petit Verdot. Big stuff, kind of crushed my palate at first, but great balance. Big medium to dark fruit, a little bit of spice and cedar notes on the nose and at the end. Long finish, nice complexity.

Really good stuff - some decanting may have helped to soften it a bit. Have to have it again!

Mo Salinas, Mo Betta

This evening, a 2006 Bodegas Salinas Mo Monastrell. $11 at LA Wine Company. A big wine which, at first, I thought was simple, but actually has some nice complexity. A mix of flavors: cherry, black pepper, licorice, blueberry and significant tannin. According to a little research, this wine is mostly Monastrell (which accounts for the tannin) as well as some Tintorera Garnacha (also known as Alicante) and some Cabernet Sauvignon. A solid wine, and probably a good example of this style from Spain for a good price, but not my favorite flavor profile.

Even More Washington Syrah

Tonight! From the Red Mountain area of Washington, a 2006 Efeste Ceidleigh Syrah. $25 at LA Wine Co, and $30-32 elsewhere. First of all, "Ceidleigh" is pronounced Kay-Lee. Second of all, 54% of the fruit in this is sourced from the Ciel du Cheval vineyard, which generally produces damn good stuff. And Wine Spectator (aka "wine speculator") gave this 93 points. If you care.

Very few wines I experimentally buy from LA Wine Co. disappoint, and this is no exception. Big, bold and tasty, however I thought a bit alcoholic. (At 15.2%, no shock there.) Quite a bit of spice, very juicy, and even a bit of a candied quality. Overall pretty dang good. Nice length. I'd like to see how this develops in about 5 years. Don't think I'd say 93 points, but good none the less.

Priorat, better than it sounds

So Priorat is a region in Spain that really has helped in Spain's resurgence into quality wines. It was a forgotten wine growing region that was rediscovered as recently as the early 90's (I hope I recall that correctly.) And, boy, am I happy they planted there. Very consistent wine out of that area. The wines shipped to the US are generally in the $35-80 range, so to find one for $17 was an exciting and rare thing. And this one once again proved why Priorat is a wonderful area for wine producing.

This was a 2006 Viticultors del Priorat Vega Escal ($17 at LA Wine Company). Blend of 60% Carignan, 30% Grenache, 10% Syrah - blends are normal for wines from Priorat. Really good stuff - lots of oomf, but not overwhelming. Nice darker fruit, with a nice amount of blueberry, which is common for Priorat wines. Very nice length and complexity.

We will definitely buy some more - really liked this stuff. If you can find it, grab it.

Another White!

First of all, it turns out Tony Franklin was the bass player on the first album by the awesome heavy metal band "Blue Murder." I totally got that wrong this evening.

Well it is rare that we both love a white wine, but this one is wonderful... and inexpensive. A 2007 Burgans Albarino, $11 at LA Wine Company, and I think widely available. Easy drinking, refreshing, wonderful acidity. From Rias Baixas, Spain. It is made in a town famous for seafood and this wine is made to pair seamlessly with it. It certainly would, but we drank it on it's own and it was quite nice on a hot July day.

Go buy this. Drink it. Tell me I'm wrong. Like I was about Tony Franklin.

Domaine Yum

Tonight we returned to Oregon, drinking yet another yummy Pinot Noir.  Seems like they can do no wrong in Oregon.  We had a 2006 Domaine Serene Yamhill Cuvee Pinot Noir.  $26 at LA Wine Company.  Normally, it seems that pinots from Domaine Serene are always top quality and fetch top dollar - $40 on up.  This was an excellent pinot noir, certainly worthy of the $26 price.  Great fruit, very lush and wonderful.  Don't tell them, but I think they could get more money for this wine..... 

So, with that thought, I just hopped on to the web - looks like they underpriced this - most everywhere else has this for $38+  -- love LA Wine Co!  Now we're gonna buy more!

Many apologies... but there is wine!

So what I feared most happened.  I was afraid that blogging would turn into too much work.  And it did, because I made it that way.  So sorry to abandon you all.  Enough of that.  Wine is good.  Wine is tasty.  Mostly, wine is fun!  So back to having fun!  Ok?  Ok. 

Let's dive right back in with a stable, solid nice blend for $15 at LA Wine Company.  2007 Tamarack Cellars Firehouse Red.  From multiple vineyards in Washington State (one of my favorite regions).  A blend of (get a pen) 31% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Syrah, 16% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc, 7% Malbec, 5% Sangiovese, 1& Carmenere and 1% Petit Verdot.  Now THAT is a blend.  But it has the two things that make me think it is a good blend, Cab Franc and Petit Verdot.

And it is.  For $15, it's a very solid wine.  Very nice blend.  Great balance, but not dull, which sometimes happens with the multi blends.  Great dark fruits, a bit of spice, nice acidity, just damn fine juice for $15 (looks like $18 at K&L Wines, so that is a great price.)  If this was from Napa, it'd be a $35 blend.  Buy this.  You will like it.  Or I will buy it from you.

Sex sells wine

Tonight, we are trying a 2007 Menage a Trois made by Folie a Deux ($7.50 at LA Wine Company.)  The trois refers to the three grapes in the blend, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.  If I recall correctly, the winery is located in Napa near Sterling and their awesome sky tram.  Although the exact blend is not indicated, I'm guessing it's dominated by Zinfandel.

This wine is good for the price.  Nice fruit, good flavor, basic fermented grape juice.  Basically balanced and easy drinking.  The addition of Merlot and Cab probably saves this wine - it is still very much on the sweet side.  A bit too sweet for us, but still drinkable.  It's been a while since I drank Yellowtail, but it reminds me of that, although this is certainly higher quality.

I guess an OK weeknight wine, although we have no plans to buy it again.  There is simply much better wine for a few bucks more.

G5 is not a jet

Tonight, we return to what seems to be our favorite place, Spain.  The wine is a 2007 Vinos Sin Ley G5 from Madrid ($12 from LA Wine Co.)  Poking around online, I found this on the website for the wines importer (oleimports.com)...

"Vinos Sin-Ley “Wines Without Law”in translation.  The twofold objective of Vinos Sin-Ley is to create “new wines” that are value oriented.  The concept, driven by creative innovation using non-conventional methods of harvesting, fermenting, blending, ageing and labeling, results with wines processing new 

fresh fruit driven flavors that are different from those achieved in the past. Composed of a group of young winemakers from different regions in Spain, the wines crafted at Vinos Sin-Ley are value oriented, driven by experimentation and innovative insight shared by their philosophy. They meet twice ayear to set in place new 

projects of mutual interest and shared knowledge of the winemaking techniques implemented."

This bottle is kind of cool - it has a bunch of info on the back of the label about the grape (100% grenache), the soil, the climate, the vine... all kinds of good stuff - I wish all bottles were like this. Hopefully you can check out the posted photo.

Most importantly, this is a tasty wine.  A nice bright fruit component (cherry, raspberry) but none of the sugary fruit you get with some of the Aussie wines.  Nice length.  The word savory seems to apply here.  Not over oaked.  Big alcohol (14.5%), but it didn't taste like it.  For some reason, it reminded me of a beaujolais - lots of fruit and almost no oak.

Definitely try this if you get a chance.

Argentinean Clos

Although I was apprehensive, I really liked this one.  Tonight's wine is a 2007 Clos de los Siete, a blend of Malbec (48%) Merlot (28%) Cabernet Sauvignon (12%) and Syrah (12%) from Argentina ($15 at LA Wine Company - I also saw it for $16 at Beverage Warehouse).  According to the label, Clos de los Siete is an "oasis comprised of seven vineyards in the foothills of the Andes, south of Mendoza."

I was apprehensive because this wine has been heavily advertised lately in several of the places I buy wine - obviously, it was recently released and they have a big marketing push.  Seems, very often, these wines are over-hyped.  Not true in this case.

This wine is really nice - totally in the flavor profile we love.  Dark color (it's young)- medium to dark fruit on the nose, a little oak and spice.  Taste is very dry, dark fruit, a little spice, medium acidity, medium to heavy tannin (but not obnoxious to me), well balanced - simply very pleasing.  14.5% alcohol, but I didn't peg it that high.

Scores I've seen go from 89-91.  Various places I've looked say it is "tightly wound" - perhaps, but it is very drinkable now, surprising for a 2007.  Highly recommend this one.  The more I drink it, the more I like it.  Yay!  And I like the label - what do you think?

Return of the King

Yeah, I just had to dork out a bit there - a little Lord of the Rings reference for my geek readers.  Tonight we tried the 2007 King's Ridge Pinot Noir.  $13 at the LA Wine Company.  A while back I reviewed the Cab/Syrah blend which was not fantastic.  But, in doing a little poking around on the web, I had learned that the pinot noir was the best liked of their wines.

Again, this is from Oregon, which is one of the new outstanding places for pinot noir - the soil and weather are great for it.  Unfortunately, they know it and charge big bucks for the good stuff like Beaux Freres, Domaine Serene and Dusky Goose, all in the $40-60 range.  Grapes in this one come from Willamette Valley and Umpqua Valley.

Well, for $13, this stuff is pretty good.  Not amazing, but a good QPR.  It's hard to find good, inexpensive pinot noir, but this I would recommend.  Nice nose - good fruit - a bit deeper than French pinot, which is typical of Oregon.  Nice flavor - sour cherry, a bit floral, light body.  Nice acidity, well balanced.  A little bit sour on the finish - almost like some of the stems got in there.  13.75% alcohol.  This is a good inexpensive example of Oregon pinot noir.  A solid wine - a good week night wine.