- 2005 Peay Vineyards Chardonnay Estate – USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (11/18/2009)
Honey suckle and other floral aromas start off the party. Creme brulee and an extreeeemely long citrus finish. Pineapple, lime, buttered toast with orange marmalade. Even some mango in there. Peay Estate is one of my favorite domestic Chards and in my opinion well worth the $45 mailing list price. (90 pts.)
- 2006 Peay Vineyards Roussanne/Marsanne Estate – USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (11/16/2009)
Quince, melon, and oily petrol. I find this Roussanne/Marsanne, and I guess most white Rhone blends, a bit distinctively stinky. Not awful, I think this is how they are supposed to smell, but also not my particular cup of tea. Not rated due to my lack of sophistication with this blend.
Posted from CellarTracker
I’m not much of a sparkling wine connoisseur. I know what i like when I taste it, but you can put most any sparkling wine in front of me, as long as it’s not too sweet, and I’ll probably like it enough to raise a toast at a wedding or at the stroke of midnight new years eve. But, I’m not one to analyze it and pull apart all the different elements – not even sure why except it may have something to do with bubbles getting in the way of the flavors and aromas. Let’s just say that I wish I knew more about this category, but, for now, with so many other types of wines to explore, I’ll leave it at “I know what I like when I taste it.”
The short story is this – this a perfectly fine sparkling wine…nothing special, nothing too sweet, nothing too bubbly (in fact, just a few less bubbles than a lot of champagnes, which is good in my book since I lean more toward Prosecco for that very reason) and definitely not the best sparkler I’ve ever had. But it’s fine. It’s got a nice dry aroma, no attack on the nose, with a clean, light-yellow color and a dry finish.
What Whole Foods has to say: The value-minded—and utterly delicious—French Sparkler is back! Fine bubbles and a golden hue make this delicate but powerful pour refined. Whether you pair its apricot and buttery brioche notes with Bon Homme Brie from Normandy or Hervé Mons Camembert cheese, pour for a toast or sip after a long day, it always shines.
What you should do: First off, I wouldn’t take my advice on sparkling wines. If you have a keen eye for them, definitely buy it and see what you think. All the Whole Foods holiday wines are affordable. It won’t be what we crack open for a special occasion, as I’ve had many champagnes that are better and feel more festive, but it’s good.
My rating: 85
NOTE: this sparkling wine was sent to me as a free sample.
Continue reading about Whole Foods Wine Holiday Top Ten List – J. P. Chenet Blanc De Blancs Brut
Price: $4.99 @ Trader Joe’s
What They Said:
Not a word, some mumbo jumbo that had nothing to do with the wine on the bottle. A google search turned up a phone number, a call to the number led to Fior di Sole which is a premium bulk wine supplier in Napa Valley who “separates itself [...]
l boxes of wine arriving with new types of packaging, not the same old monolithic chunks of styrofoam that I never really know what to do with. Nope, these new packages are green, so green that the recent packaging from Sea Smoke (picture at right) even says “We’re Green!!” 100% Recycled. 100% Recyclable. 100% Biodegradable. 100% Compostable.” All good things to be sure.
And this stuff is strong. Some wines already come with cardboard inserts (i.e. flat boxes especially), but those just aren’t that strong. These new types of inserts are sturdy, like professional moving boxes.
So, why aren’t more people in the wine industry using them? One reason may be that some of the wrinkles are still being worked out, as one allocation I received was followed a few days later by a letter saying some of the bottles broke in shipping and to contact them if my bottles were some of those unfortunate few. All my bottles were fine, so no problem there and I’m sure any structural issues will get ironed out over time.
Another reason may be cost – I imagine that this new type of green shipping is more expensive and it doesn’t surprise me at all that the more expensive wines are the first to try it out. We’ll have to wait and see if the cost is manageable for most folks.
In the end, I hope that all wineries and distributors start to look at these types of packing materials. It sure would free me from the guilt I feel every time I open a box to find big white foam bricks that either go straight into my trash or build up in the garage, hoping for an alternative method of disposal to mysteriously appear out of nowhere.
Would love to hear your thoughts…what new types of packaging have you seen out there?
Continue reading about Wine packaging – the future of shipping wine?
We briefly interrupt the Whole Foods Holiday Top Ten List for this special post on the 2008 Pancake Cellars Big Day White, Paso Robles, California.
For those of you who have followed this blog in it’s first year of existence, you’ll know that I’ve spent some time trying to figure out why certain wines are of interest to people and why others are not. The biggest surprise in that effort is the 2007 Pancake Cellars. A year ago, I picked up a bottle at Trader Joe’s based on a recommendation by my buddy Jason over at Jason’s Wine Blog (yes, we were both very clever when we named our blogs) and because it had a campy label and a $5 price tag.
Turned out it was pretty good. Not the second coming of white wine, but not a throw-away either and, if I remember correctly, I even picked up another bottle. Then I moved on and kind of forgot about it…until I started checking the numbers and discovered that the 2007 was my most visited wine review throughout the whole year. And I have no idea why. If you’re out there, you Pancake Cellar seekers, let me know what’s so intriguing for you. Is this a $5 cult bottle of wine? Is it the label that you find too compelling to ignore? Or, is it just a wildly popular wine at Trader Joe’s? Would really like to know if you want to share your thoughts.
I’m not sure if the 2008 will strike as much of a chord as the 2007 or if those of you who seek out this wine will take a liking to, um, my not so favorable review of the 2008, but will be interesting to see what happens to this year’s post. I’ll let you know what I find.
In the meantime, let’s get into it.
On the nose, this is lemon, light honey and cantaloupe, with an overwhelming amount of tap water – kind of a mix of nothing, fluoride and a little copper. No other way for me to explain it…it’s almost like I made a light lemon / cantaloupe spritzer and then accidentally knocked it over into a sink full of fresh tap water. Most of the watery part of the wine went away in the mouth and it turned into a full-lemon lemonade, as in everything – the juice, the seeds, the pith, the rind, maybe even some branches of the lemon tree…like a bitter lemonade, maybe made by a kid who forgot to add all the sugar and had to eventually board up his corner lemonade stand for fear of being foreclosed on by his neighbors. Not good. One dimensional, hot, bitter and unbalanced.
This year’s blend is a mix of 47% Pinot Blanc, 35% Pinot Gris, 12% Grenache Blanc and 6% Riesling, which feels like either the blending was a mix of what was left or the tasting somehow took a turn that couldn’t be reversed. Pancake Cellars does have a track record of blending several varietals (in 2007, it was 60% Sauvignon Blanc, 27% Chardonnay, 12% Gewurtztraminer and 1% Pinot Blanc), but this year it just ended up to be a bit of a mess.
It’s really too bad, too. I remember liking the 2007 on this and was pretty fired up when my wife called me from Trader Joe’s asking “was it Pancake Cellars you were looking for?” We have one more bottle of it and I will pit it against some other whites in a blind tasting, maybe in December, but, for now, not that enthused about it.
What you should do: For the faithful, pick it up, see what you think. At around $5 ($5.99 in Washington), it can never hurt. But, $5 wine is a tricky category and I would argue that it sometimes takes as many or more bottles to find one you like as it would to find a $20 bottle you’ll enjoy again and again.
My rating: 80
To be fair, bjwdad over at Cork’d, gave it a 92. Although I cannot understand how he got there, under any circumstances, it does speak to the differences in palettes and, at the end of the day, wine still comes down to personal taste, no matter what anyone tells you.
Here’s his review of the 2008 Pancake Cellars…Trader Joe’s purchase, 13.7% alcohol. Blend is 47% Pinot Blanc, 35% Pinot Gris, 12% Grenache Blanc, 6% Riesling. Quite different from last year’s. The floral nose presents mineral terroir, peach, melon, honeysuckle, citrus & orange blossoms. VERY nice. The taste is at first kind of Chard sour, but that melts into a round, acidic tart-sweet experience. Hard to put a finger (or taste bud) on exact tastes, but they’re simply GOOD. I’m satisfied with that, and the price beats any comparable white!
Continue reading about Pancake Cellars 2008 Big Day White Paso Robles, California
I wouldn’t be a responsible wine blogger if I didn’t feature Freethegrapes.org at least once. “Free the Grapes! is a national grassroots coalition of wine lovers, wineries and retailers who seek to remove restrictions in states that still prohibit consumers from purchasing wines directly from wineries and retailers.”
If you’ve ever tried to gift wine, join a wine club or purchase wine for yourself at an online store, you’ve probably run into a myriad of shipping restrictions. Twelve States prohibit direct shipment including my hub in the mid-Atlantic. I’d encourage you to visit Free the Grapes and research you’re own State Laws and contact your local Congressman, I know I will!
Thanks to the Wine School of Philadelphia for the following wine recommendations:
First of all, you will probably need a bottle for those friends/family who don’t drink wine. Instead of getting them a bottle of white zin, grab a bottle of St. Supery’s Moscato (about $12). Its just sweet enough for them, but still complex and balanced enough to enjoy. Its actually quite good with cranberry sauce.
For a white wine, you could go with Pieropan’s Soave Classico ($13). Its stylish and crisp with just enough lush peach to work with some of those freaky yam dishes ya’ll will be eating. Another idea would be to go with the Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Blanc ($15); this is a fun little champagne wannabe with a touch of almond and pear on the nose.
For a red, I tend to go with the drench-it-all-with-a-fruit-bomb approach. It’s especially effective if you have a family like mine (I am never sure what is worse, Aunt Sarah’s Suet-and-Kidney Pie or her husband’s drunken advances.)
With that in mind, go for the Bleasdale “Bremerview” Shiraz ($12). A great dose of over-the-top fruit that totters between luxury and trashy. It’s also about 15% alcohol, which always makes the holidays more… interesting.
If you want honest-to-goodness class, then get a few bottles of Chateau Coufran Haut Medoc ($13). It’s the best bottle of left bank Bordeaux available under twenty bucks, and my current favorite anyday wine.
If the pumpkin pie ain’t enough for you, then you should have a
bottle of Dutschke The Tokay ($12 for a half bottle), too. Imagine a bottle of maple syrup and a vintage port had a love child.
The Culinary Institute of America (the other CIA) based in St. Helena, California today announced the Vintners Hall of Fame 2010 class. The five new members to be inducted are Randall Grahm, Andy Beckstoffer, Al Brounstein, Zelma Long and Leon Adams. When we toured the hall earlier this year (see below for video tour) Loni wondered, “where are all the women?” The long, dimly lit, barrel room on the second floor of the CIA is indeed a mostly male place with famous names and faces such as Robert Mondavi, Ernest and Julio Gallo, and Charles Krug. But there are a few woman who also adorn the hall and have left their mark on the industry. Carole Meredith pioneered the use of DNA to analyze relationships among grape varieties. Jamie Davies (along with husband Jack) forged a path of producing high quality sparkling wines. And now the hall will have its third woman, Zelma Long, who became one of the first woman to run both a the winemaking and business sides of a winery.
Wine Tube TV: The Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley from StarkSilverCreek.com on Vimeo.
I’ve been really impressed with the tasting and food pairing notes this year from Doug Bell and team over at Whole Foods. For the Sutter Home Muscat, Whole Foods has this to say about it:
The retro label is a tip-off—you’ll find comfort in this bottle. Honeysuckle and peaches make it playful for occasions like brunch or dessert when you need a wine on the sweet side. Cowgirl Creamery Organic Mount Tam or Rogue Creamery’s Anniversary Blue cheese makes the wine’s sugary side divine.
Cowgirl Creamery Mount Tam and Rogue Creamery Blue Cheese? Are they kidding? How’d they know these are two of my favorite things? In San Francisco, my wife and I always went to Cowgirl Creamery at the Ferry building and this was the cheese we went ho
me with, especially when we needed something for a dinner party. On top of that, the Rogue Creamery is a few miles from where we got married in Oregon and their blue cheese is out of this world. Or, better said, the best in this world (literally, they’ve been voted as making the best blue cheese in the world).It’s like Whole Foods somehow tapped our phone lines over the last few years, then rigged it so I would start wine blogging and direct some of my focus on Whole Foods – brilliant! Very interesting…and if I were a paranoid person, I would put a lot of merit in that idea, but I am neither paranoid nor inclined to spend ti
me on such a silly idea. Unless, of course it’s true, then I’d have to hire a PI and bug their phone lines right back and…uh, well, okay maybe not.Unfortunately, I found myself focusing more on the cheese than the wine, because this wine was not to my liking. In short, I found it be one-dimensional and offer not much more than a bottle of spiced honey. Very sweet, too sweet for my taste and a wine that I won’t be picking up again. I did struggle for more to say about it, but after more sips than I would have liked, I just kept coming back to honey with a little bit of spice, like nutmeg or cinnamon.
Now, Whole Foods di
d nail the fact that this wine would go very well with the Mount Tam and the Rogue blue cheese, but I’ve had enough of both of those cheeses to know that a lot of whites can hang out with these near-perfect cheeses. I would probably even give the Muscat a few extra points in my rating if I tasted it with the cheeses, but I didn’t, so will settle into a lower score of 82.What you should do: If you like sweet Muscat, definitely try this. If your palate is more like mine
and prefer dried wines, you may want to try the 2008 Ca’ del Solo Muscat from Bonny Doon – it’s a beautiful, well balanced, drier Muscat that kept me going back for more when I first tried it. If you like cheese, find a way to get ahold of some Mount Tam or Rogue blue – these will certainly not disappoint.My rating: 82
NOTE: this wine was sent to me as a free sample.
Continue reading about Whole Foods Wine Holiday Top Ten list – 2008 Sutter Home Muscat Of Alexandria