Are you Hungary...?

Mmmmm Tokaji.  Good lord, this stuff is good.  For those unfamiliar with Tokaji, it is a sweet white desert wine made in Tokaj, Hungary.  This stuff comes in variations of sweetness as indicated by the number of puttonyos - this one has 5.  I'm sure I will mess this up, but basically a puttonyo is a basket of concentrated rotting grapes (they use the Furmint grape to make this).  First they make base wine out of the Furmint grape - then they add a puttonyo of sweet, rotting grapes to a set amount of base wine - the more puttonyos, the sweeter it is - the scale is basically 1-6, 6 is highest.  The result is a wonderfully sweet and acidic wine with incredible honey flavors.

Since good tokaji is usually fairly expensive (this was $30 for a half bottle from Wine Library in New Jersey), I've only had maybe 6 different brands, all in the 5-6 puttonyos range - this one is outstanding - a 2001 Hetszolo.  Simply an excellent example of tokaji.  Balanced, loads of honey, not sickeningly sweet (which was the problem with the last one I bought) - just wonderful.  You must try this once in your life.

Just found this on the K&L Wines website, where they also sell it for $30 a bottle...With a stunning 120 g/l of residual sugar (minimum), this original dessert wine was made according to tradition, harvesting only starts after 28th October, and may last until the first snows, so as to allow the botrytis cinerea (noble rot) to develop and to obtain the maximum concentration of grape must. When the grape must concentration is sufficient, the grapes with noble rot are separately harvested. The Aszú grapes are manually harvested one by one, and maceration takes place with the grape must. Next fermentation takes place in barrels for one and a half to two months. The white wine is then aged for three years in oak barrels stored in underground cellars at constant temperature (12° to 13° C) and humidity. This long ageing process gives the wine its complex and inimitable bouquet.

2006 ZD Pinot Noir

Sorry for the lazy blog title - they can't all be gold.

Tonight, we downed a lovely bottle of ZD Pinot Noir.  We actually visited ZD about 5 years ago while up in Napa.  We loved their cabernet sauvignon; even bought a bottle even though it was in the $40 range (a fortune for us back then.)  The pinot is listed as from Carneros, one of the better Pinot growing areas in California.

This is a very good pinot noir, especially at $27 from Lincoln Fine Wines.  Doing a quick web search, the price ranges from $22 (outrageously low! I'll have to check into budgetbottle.com) to $49.  Huge range.  Excellent quality, certainly worth the money.  Great fruit, great balance, nice acidity.  Really solid.  If you can find this - try it.  You will like it.  Just damn good California Pinot Noir.

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!

Tonight, we are having a 2006 Chappellet Mountain Cuvee from Napa Valley. Chappellet is known for having pretty good 

Cabernet Sauvignon, and this has 51% Cab... as well as 40% Merlot, 7% Malbec, 1% Cab Franc and 1% Petit Verdot. Seems like 

the price varies, anywhere from $20-30 - I paid $28 at Lincoln fine wines this time. Really excellent blend - great quality - 

enough Cab that it went well with our steak, but balanced enough that it could be drunk easily on it's own. For those that 

might be a bit frightened of the $50+ bottles of Cab, this is a nice alternative.  We have had this many times before and have 

never been disappointed. Better than last night's blend in my opinion, but $13 better? Who can say?

Perhaps in a day or two, I will blog about the Tokaji we had as a dessert wine...

Sorry if this post looks odd - was having a problem with the settings...

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.

Bangin Red.... no, really, that's the name!

Tonight we tried a wine that I received as a gift at Christmas, a 2006 Bangin Red.  A nice blend of 69% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 8% Malbec, 6% Petit Verdot, 5% Merlot, 2% Zinfandel.  Yikes.  That's an odd mixed bag of stuff.

Well, the wine was a nice everyday drinker.  The blend managed to make it drinkable, however a bit benign.  Nothing bad at all, but nothing memorable.  The cab was definitely dominant - the mix is intriguing, but almost seems like to good aspects of in each grape cancel each other out.  Easy drinking, nice flavors, a good value, if it goes for about $10-12, which is what I'm guessing it is.  If the givers are reading this, great choice!  And thanks!

A doubleshot of tasty

Yeah, Saturday night and we have two wines!  And we made fondue!  It was a good night.

First was a 2000 "L'Ermitage" Brut by Roederer Estate, sparkling wine from Anderson Valley.  This is one of Roederer's signature wines, a dry, fruity, balanced blend of 53% Chardonnay, 47% Pinot Noir, and 3.5% "aged reserve."  I don't know what "aged reserve is, nor do I know where the other .5% went to.  Hopefully my belly.  We bought this thinking we'd drink it this past New Years Eve, but did not have a chance.  About $41 from our local Pavillion's supermarket - have seen it from $38-$50 since.  Why they call it "L'Ermitage" I do not know - seems like they are trying to invoke the name of "L'Hermitage," a wine from the Northern Rhone made from the Marsanne and Rousanne grapes having nothing to do with sparking wine.  Weird.

Anyhow, it was a lovely start to our evening.  A tasty sparkly wine - very fruity and crisp and dry.  It didn't have that yeasty, creamy, biscuity character of some of the Champagnes. I must admit, I personally prefer this style.   Is it worth $40?  That could be debated, but it's pretty darn good.

Second up was a 2005 Newton Unfiltered Cabernet Sauvignon.  Wow!  We had the pleasure of imbibing this about 6 months ago at Capital Grill in Seattle with Rachel's mom and "stepfather."  (They aren't married on paper, but...)  And then we got a bottle from them at Christmas!  Yay!

Well, tonight was the night to retry this and it did not disappoint.  If you care, Parker gave it a 92.  So insanely yummy.  Great big flavors countered with nice amounts of oak and leather, yet not an oak bomb.  Nice length, great balance.  Just damn good Cab from Napa.  Anyone who thinks Napa Cab is overdone and over-oaked should try this.  It's damn good.  About $40-50.

This is "unfiltered" but don't be nervous - some wine folks feel that filtering removes some wonderful flavors from the wine - there minimal to no sediment - it's just darker and more opaque than some wines.  And in the Parker review I read that "the proprietress Su Hua Newton declassified the 2003 and 2004 vintages, as she was not happy with them."  I guess she takes this wine stuff seriously.  Glad she does so I can have fun!