No Wine Over $20-Reviews and the LA Wine Scene

As the season pulls slowly to a close (big sigh, visualize mountain meadow or tropical beach scenes) wines for the coming season – Fall – start showing up. Here are a few recently tasted.

2005 Chateau Champ des Soeurs Bel Amant Fitou $8: Classic Languedoc little regional red wine. Imported by Becky Wasserman. That is just about all you need to know. Entry is forthcoming on go-to importers that if you see their name on the back label you can put fear aside because their products are ALL GOOD. This is Grenache, Carignane and Mourverdre. That is one of the blends we like a lot. Smooth (popular term that usually means light tannins – it is) with solid fruit, well balanced. Some might say simple. I might agree. But I am smiling when I say it. Here are tasting notes in far greater depth that you might enjoy. 13.5%.

2005 Tablas Creek Rousanne ~30: I am in the wine club so I get the serious TC wines along with the cheap-o blends that are fabulous (Cotes de Tablas red and white, highly recommended). This is serious wine. Not sure if it is 100% Rousanne or less (must be at least 75%) with other grapes blended. In any case, the label says it all – pears, honeysuckle, beeswax and marzipan. Now I have never tasted honeysuckle (I have had marzipan and if Iever did have beeswax I have forgotten the experience) but I have heard Fats Waller sing Honeysuckle Rose although when Fats sings it sounds like he is saying “honey, suck a rose”. The TC Rousanne does not remind me of Fats Waller.
Maybe Jelly Roll Morton…more structured, less rollicking, expert technique. The wine will take some age. It will probably be more forward and charming in 6 months. 14.3%. Here are the tasting notes on this wine straight from the Tablas' website.

2005 Chateau de Mattes-Sabran Corbieres Le Clos Redon $13: Isn’t this wonderful. I made the proclamation tasting this wine that there are no great wines. There is wonderful, fabulous, marvelous, delightful, cheery and so on. This is one. 100% syrah from southern France. Firm tannins without being overwhelming. Light (some critics prefer “white”) pepper. Ripe Pluot right up front. Juicy. Creamy in the middle and strong finish of acid one gets from young fruit. One taster experienced this young fruit flavor as a bit astringent. In one year the acid will fold into the wine and the astringency will disappear. Read the notes from North Berkeley Wine here. I will point out that this wine was made in tanks. I would bet concrete ad not steel. It has that dustiness to it that I associate with concrete. This is spectacular value. 13.7%. Here are tasting notes from the Chateau by a hard-core oenophile (British naturally) who rates the wines (2003 vintage) on a 20 point scale, winning bonus wine intelligence points. Includes vineyard descriptions which I like to read about.

1997 Lone Madrone Cabernet Sauvignon ~$25 (way back when it was released): Pulled it from the cellar to go with steaks. Paso Robles custom crush product doing all the “right” things for custom labels; unfiltered, unfined, single vineyard mountain grapes grown at 1500 feet. Very rich, fruit bomb…with a timer. Huh? It does not blow up right away in your mouth. Takes a little time to grow and grow and grow. Stop with the fellatio metaphor although I see your point. Anyway, the wine does not blow. Cherry rich in flavors. All tannins have blended in. It is a style favored by monster-wine cab lovers. Not in the Napa style at all. Turns out the wine is made by Tablas Creek cellarmaster. That is what I consider good pedigree. This kind of cab can only be made in hot regions like Paso or the Central Valley. Where it is a challenge to do cab well. I wonder what Parker would say? 14.6%

You may have noticed that "value" in wine is getting quite a bit of attention. A recent LA Times article expounded on the merits of various domestic and international wines which they considered to be good values, i.e., the U20 wines (under 20 bucks) we favor. The Wall Street Journal also recently (Sept 7) featured values in pinot noir.

We could not agree more with this reasonable fascination. We recognize trophy wines have their place as trophies that can play a very helpful role when entertaining and seeking to impress clients or anyone else whose favor is worth culling. I am being perfectly serious. However, we also know when it comes to enjoying wine for nothing other than the sheer pleasure of drinking and talking about wine...it's a great big world. Bully!

Here are four wines we tasted recently that cover the range from bargain to trophy.

2002 Ethan Santa Ynez Valley Syrah Purisima Mountain Vineyard $25: This was purchased in 2003 on futures at the Wine Cask Santa Barbara tasting. We do not go
anymore as the event dipped in quality and range of wines offered. It is actually an interesting story of how the leverage shifted from the Wine Cask to the winemakers. As the winemakers and their respective labels received more and more attention the winemakers began bringing fewer wines to the tasting where the cost of entry to them included a mandatory 25% discount (which encouraged attendance). The only way to get many of the top wines is to buy them through the winery mail list at full retail or with a nominal discount. Makes sense, no?

Ethan Lindquist is the son of Bob Lindquist, founder of and winemaker at Qupe. This bottle may be Ethan's first release of Purisima Mountain Vineyard. It was delicious. Profound bittersweet chocolate (65% cacao) flavors. Dustiness initially (soft tannins) faded within 15 minutes. Never faded throughout our meal. There was a companion tasting article in the LA Times that covered a couple other Purisima Mountain releases from SRH winemakers. This vineyard is regarded as one of the area's best. 14.5% alcohol which is typical for SRH. Ethan kept it balanced without pumping up ripeness. I doubt pricing for Ethan wines still begin with a 2!

2005 Clautiere Estate Viognier Paso Robles $20: I am not a big fan of viognier from any region domestic and abroad. The grape just does not thrill me. I have had the "legendary" and very expensive Chateau Grillet young and aged. Nnhh. This wine was nice enough. Came with the Clautiere club order. I like Clautiere wines. Great price points. Well made. I prefer their red blends which are traditional Rhone style. I really like that. But even Tablas Creek (California's best winery) makes duds. I would still recommend joining the Clautiere maillist (along with Tablas Creek), especially if you like costume parties and the bacchanalian debauchery.

2005 Trenel Moulin A Vent Tirage Limite $23: These are numbered bottles which means they are limited production. It is the fabled 2005 Beaujolais vintage. How much longer will we be able to find these wines in our local (and favorite mail order) stores? This is a cut above the ordinary 2005 wines from Beaujolais. More tannic backbone with just as much of the ripe Gamay fruit. This wine will keep for several years. In flavors it is closer to Barolo than Burgundy (its northern neighbor). A lean and sinewy wine (think marathon runner) that likewise does not give out.

1997 Louis Latour Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru: Long term cellar dweller that I finally busted out for a special guest. This is highly sought wine for burg hounds. 1997 was a difficult vintage in Burgundy with intermittent rain. This means some grapes did not ripen enough. French chardonnay blows away California across the price range but especially at the high end. This wine has character and flavors that cause us to prefer French to domestic chardonnay wines, however, the vintage did leave a mixed impression. Stones and minerals in the nose and initial flavors. A bit later jasmine emerged as the wine opened. Ten years is a good time to wait for white burgundy especially a Grand Cru. Because of the vintage problems with ripeness I wold say this was a good time to open this bottle. Served with halibut and a tomato salsa that worked well. Here are notes from the domaine.

Send my ribeye to the house of detection. I have eaten my last meal in a big deal steak house. Honk if you have had it, too. The place? Mastros. Not the Beverly Hills location but does it really matter? Go to the website and Sinatra is playing and that is part of the problem. The concept of high rollers, rat pack, swingin' down the lane - it seems so silly unless it's Halloween. Ring-a-ding-ding. I do not care if the beef palace is Cut or Flemings or Arnie Mortons or Nick and Steph. [I will reserve a last chance for N&S never having eaten there, not to mention the wife ate there and liked it]. However, having written that, as it were and if you will...these places are smoke and mirrors...and more than I can handle. And I will throw in a "there you go".

Our dear dear dear friends asked us to join them for a birthday meal (probably for the last time now!). We love them and they are always great company so of course we accepted. They did not disappoint. Cannot say the same for the joint and the meal. The problem for me is I just don't get the $500 meal any more. Maybe I would if it involved fresh truffles 36 hours airlifted from a Piedmont field and shaved over my pasta. But, a Kansas City ribeye? BFD. Or Kobe prime? SFW. I cannot digest this stuff anymore. It gives me g-a-s-s. I rolled in the bed all night. Got up twice to just to see if I could evacuate (as we say in the hospital). Fuggedaboudit.

The steaks were cooked perfectly. It is just too damn much. Sides included mashed with lobster chunks. I felt nauseated hearing the waiter roll it off her tongue. Birthday boy hit that pile like Keith Richards found his lost nickel bag. G'head! They should be serving nitroglycerin on the side.

It actually helped when the entrees arrived before the salads. Our host thankfully chided the delivery guys and sent the steaks back to the kitchen. Next thing the matire'd is tableside gushing apologies. With a promise that he would "make it up to us" we relaxed and the wives were able to shelve their embarrassment at my pal's show of masculine restaurant decorum.

By dessert I was in a cholesterol/diabetic fog. I think the coffee was good. The wines were outstanding. Here they are.

2001 Ojai Vineyard Close Pepe Pinot Noir ~$40: We toted this in figuring it was worth the $25 corkage. And how about the new corkage retaliation? I guess these big ticket steak brothels figure they need to squeeze every bit of cash from their customers so they have jacked the corkage fee to discourage folks from bringing their own trophy cab that is too young to drink anyway. This would be less objectionable if a wine list was in place with a selection that complemented a $125/plate. Like the basic fare, the list exchanges imagination for label flash. But I digress. This wine was outstanding. Adam Tolmach is a master winemaker working with fruit from one of the top three vineyards in Santa Rita Hills. More importantly, Wes Hagen the grower (can you guess which is Wes?) and Adam T the winemaker share a stylistic and personality kinship. Adam is somber. Wes is lyrical. Both are serious experts at what they do. This wine will take more age and I would like to have several more bottles even though they will easily break the $20 limit. This wine moves to the "hunt list"; a small and distinct list of wines for which I am always on the hunt. What else is on my hunt list? Ask me another time. Adam extracted lots of fruit from the Clos Pepe tonnage which is his way. The wine has aged enough to show some dried flowers character. Cola and sour milk flavors sounds absolutely disgusting but that is my best description. This comes from very ripe fruit. Only 200 cases. 14.5%. For some fun and to perhaps learn a bit more about Wes and Adam be sure to read Adam's "tasting notes" from his website.

2003 Nicolas Potel Nuits St George $105 (on the list): Delicious wine. It is the "village wine" from Nicolas Potel who is a newcomer in Burgundy (1997). 2003 was an unusually hot vintage. This wine was ripe with lean characteristics of northern Burgundy. It was balanced and tasted like French pinot noir. Cherry and blackberry fruit. Tannic but no barnyard. If you like Nuits St George, which I do, then this wine is very pleasing. Retails is in the $50s so Mr. Larry - birthday boy - picked a value winner.

Our hosts were the best company as always and, along with the wines, the best thing about the dinner!