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

Sober thinking: The following entry was written several weeks ago as is my practice. I am writing this preamble following the most incredibly miserable week in the stock market in my lifetime. If ever there was a time for wines under $20 it is now. Like every business the wine industry will surely take a beating. We hope our favorite wine makers, importers and retailers will survive the shakeout that is sure to come. And that goes for our readers as well.

Next to corked wines and a busted cellar cooler in August, wines aging past their prime is one of the worst wine scenarios imaginable. Ergo Dotoré must purge his cellar of aging wines. tBoW has a few that also have to go. So we pulled corks over Labor Day and found several reportable selections.

1998 Talisman Carneros Pinot Noir $35 (today!!): Second vintage for a small production house devoted to Pinot Noir. Holding up pretty well for 10 years old but this is why we purge. Fruit is there but on the downslope. Napa vineyards planted to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are disappearing. Carneros has the best fruit. This is the second vintage (171 cases from this producer. Here is what a Talisman fan said about this wine in 2006 while tasting thru a vertical from 1997. "A nice hint of spiced raisin and licorice in the nose. Full compote of cherries, herbs and leather which picks up steam with air time. Plenty of stuffing left and thoroughly enjoyable. Impressive for a difficult vintage. A Hugh Hefner wine: showing a little age but still perky". Perky? I would be too if I had bowls of Viagra strategically placed throughout my home. Today Talisman bottles from multiple sources. 13%

2001 Longoria Fe Ciega Pinot Noir $: This is one of the venerable Santa Rita Hills labels. John Longoria has nearly exclusive rights to the Fe Ciega (blind faith) vineyard which is one of the oldest (at ten years) planted to Pinot Noir in the SRH AVA. He does sell off to other labels so one sees Fe Ciega vineyard elswhere. tBoW cannot recall tasting any Longoria wines so we pulled this cork with interest. Well-made wines often show best 7 years out. No science there. How about the wine? Can detect the alcohol in the nose though it is not pronounced. Good strong fruit without cherry or barnyard. The taste is distinctive and appealing. Dotoré, who contributed the bottle, says the wine does not taste like pinot noir. What it does taste like is a Maipu Malbec. Pronounced orange tones within rich fruit. The wine is ready tonight. 14.7%

2006 Cote de Nuits Villages Domaine des Tilleuls $30: A North Berkeley Wine Imports selection selected from Philippe Livera Fixin juice. To the knowing burg hound this means declassified Premier Cru. I like the earthiness and the lean sausage sauvage [ed. nyuk nyuk on the weird wine alliteration] . The nose is rustic and fruity with cherries in liqueur, leather and terra firma. Very fragrant. With aeration the red fruit (cherry) and violets appear. Second sips show more fruit and waxiness. xx%

There were a few other wines worth mentioning.

2006 Frederic Magnien Rosé~ $12: Purchased in a mixed case from go-to retailer North Berkeley Wines. Grapefruity, acidic, dry 100% Pinot Noir from a top Burgundian producer whose labels are more likely to read Echezeaux, Pommard, and Vosne Romanee. This is excellent Rosé and I would buy this again.

2004 J. Wilkes Pinot Blanc $18: Purchased in Los Olivos at a 2003 tasting with Jeff Wilkes. This was the only white wine we purchased along with several Pinots that should be opened soon [ed. think Turkey Day]. This wine has nto improved with age. Not that it is over the hill. It was just not a pleasing wine (for tBoW) when we tried it. I prefer Oregon Pinot Blanc. Or Alsatian. Not certain I liked this wine that much at the wine bar which means you-know-who tossed it in with the others. Not in balance. Too ripe. Flavors seem to peel off like paint in a Manhattan apartment. I am confident the Pinot Noir wines will show much better. Here is a nice piece on Jeff Wilkes. 14.1%

2001 Rochioli Estate Chardonnay Rich, still some tannins, Almost thick. Goes well with the sausage. Too sweet on the finish. Some woodiness lingers. I used to love these wines. Then I lost my flavor for them.This wine has some of the reasons [ed. besides changing taste]. Rochioli tries too hard to make great wine. This is their estate blend, not the single vineyard South River. The wine is too rich, too big. It is not a monster like so many others (one thinks immediately of Cakebread) but it is not a pleasure to drink.

2005 Williams Selyem Bucher VIneyard Pinot Noir $70: High tone New World baby. Rich, jammy, raspberries. Very fruity without being out of whack. Williams Selyem sources from enough vineyards to have its own appellation. Too young. Needed the aerator big time. 14.1%

1986 Chateau Canon Premiere Cru $340 today: From the depths of the cellar it came. A 22 year old St Emilion. Memories from a time when we bought the hype and hunted down First and Second and Third and Fourth growth mis-marks. I once grabbed a 1966 Chateau Montrose for $60 around 1983. And it was delicious. This perfectly stored Merlot is wasted on pinot-files or even worse cheapo-philes. Red brick in color. Impressive color and nose. Cedar. Camphor. Spicy. Very very nice right out of the bottle. Nose is more impressive than the first taste. Merlot fruit evident. Cannot be any Cab in here. Not a lean but a sinewy wine. The property is owned buy Chanel which is one of the problems with collectible Bordeaux. An international perfume company owns it. You think they bought it because they love the wine? Here is the other problem. What is being sold is not wine. It is a mirage. I clipped this note from a vertical tasting of Canon that went back 60 vintages. "...every young collector can already consider that in twenty to thirty years, he will drink wines which will reach the quality of the legendary wines of the twenties". Are you kidding me? Who would want that?!?!? What do we drink in the meantime? #&*^%$+*&^!?!$!!! 12.5%

September and October are transition months in the wine calendar. We leave behind the summer wines - the Rosés, Moscati and lean and frothy acidic white wines from Austria to the Basque country. It is football time and that means red wine. The Trojans have begun their march to another championship [ed. cue Conquest please] with the obligatory loss to a bottom dweller. The tBoW team has opened some interesting reds with greater success. Here are some bottles that recently popped their corks celebrating the change of season.

Tillie Claret $20: Purchased at Aramenta Cellars in the northern Willamette Valley (north of Dundee Hills and west of Portland). The winery is first and foremost devoted to Pinot Noir. They also produce Chardonnay. Total case production is 1,000 of which 250 cases were Tillie in 2005. The 2006 vintage is the first wine labeled as vintage. The bottle I had was probably 2005 juice blended with 2004. The wine is very interesting tasting like mocha coffee in the most milkshake way. Creamy, frothy, rich. A gift and quite rare, this wine is a real treat. Turns out Brick House is also in the Ribbon Ridge AVA.14.1%

2000 Phelps Insignia $120: Big ticket Napa Meritage with all the collectible pedigree anyone could desire in a premium Napa winery. Even the squat Sedrick Ellis shaped bottle demands immediate comment and admiration. The Insignia label has a long history of producing outstanding if sometimes idiosyncratic wines. The 1985, for example, was remarkable for its minty flavors [tBoW puts on his wine snob cone cap]. This 2000 edition is still young. Lots of berry, black cherry, some cinnamon and milk chocolate. The earthy Cabernet at 77% is balanced with 18% Mertlot. The wine is delicious. 20,000 cases! 14.1%

2004 Saxum Bone Rock $60: The blend is 85% Syrah, 12% Grenache, and 3% Mourvédre. The winemaker is Justin Smith. The vineyard is Bone Rock which is owned by James Berry Smith (yes they are related, Pop and Son). I am linking to an excellent review from Gang of Pour of the vineyard and wines that feature Bone Rock and James Berry fruit, and regional wineries that produce wines from these vineyards. The nose was veggie like arugula. Bitter and sharp. Made tBoW a bit nervous as Paso has always been notorious for its vegetable qualities. This blew off in 5 minutes. The flavors showed none of that. Ripe blueberry and blackberry fruit. Soft tannins. This is a vintage to drink early. Love that. Quite the delicious wine that blows away the recent big ticket cabs and cab blends (which are nice and impressive but I will take the Saxum even at the U20-busting price). Amazingly, the alcohol was not detectable even at 15.8%!!!

The wine economy update:When I wrote this post about a month ago in advance of this publication preceded the greatest economic event in our lifetlme. The current financial crisis in world markets has bearing upon what we will be buying and drinking over the next couple years. It is more important than ever to find value wines and avoid the vinous equivalents of institutions deep into credit debt swaps

The end-of-days folks are getting new airtime. tBoW finds that contemplating the mass psychology of cataclysmic disaster scenarios makes it all the more important to attend to more rational minds breaking new ground in their own way.

New York Times wine columnist Eric Asimov recently published a column that addressed the "intersection of price and value". It is definitely worth a read. With the economy slipping into darkness we are going to be reading a lot more about the broader issue of price and value - a favorite and frequent tBoW subject. Click here to read a pdf version of "Modest Luxuries for Lean Times" posted with permission from Mr. A.

tBoW interviewed an industry insider who has seen plenty of ebb and flow over the past 30 years. Here is what he sees in his looking glass. (1) Trophy wines are a dead market and have been for 6 months. After all, even Sumner Redstone had to sell off stock at depreciated values to cover his margin calls. (2) We will be seeing more and more wines form South Africa and South America because they are the only wine producing nations that can compete at the sub-$10 level with Two Buck Chuck. (3) California wines have to recalibrate and re-negotiate in order to avoid pricing themselves almost completely out of a declining consumer market. Look for this to be a painful process that will not be realized until 2010 as California vintners hang on to the vapor from their Mondavi-style hangover.

And this is just the start. Here is what tBoW was thinking about a few weeks ago.

The Canyon Bistro in Topanga Canyon has been open less than a year. The history of dining establishments in Topanga Canyon is checkered, to be blunt. Topanga is the canyon where time stands still. I suppose time also stands still in East LA where mariachis and homies have been alive and kicking for more than 60 years. The Topanga equivalent is hippies, pot and artists...since the 60s.

The last decent restaurant predictably folded [ed. ca 1993] undone by Topanga's finest hippies, artists and reefer. The place was a home with a fireplace masquerading as a dining establishment. Dining was very relaxed.
Steaks were broiled on a grill in the fireplace in the dining room. [ed. That had to be out of code] Sometimes you had to remind the waiter the steak was ready to come off. Service was a direct function of what weed was in the canyon that month. All the servers were stoned. We saw Steve Guttenberg in there a couple of times [ed. and Rebecca Romijn in Canyon Bistro]. Now it's an "antique" clothing store.

The Canyon Bistro is sober and quite charming. The tBoW team hopes they make it. Service is alert, food is prepared well, and the wine list is decent. One recent evening we brought in a wine and ordered one off their list.

1996 Rochioli Little Hill Pinot Noir $475 (today online): If I had to pick a favorite Rochioli pinot noir this would be it. 1996 was a very good vintage in Russian River. The lineup used to be East Block, West Block, Three Corners and Little Hill. The color on this 12 year old wine is cherry red. The nose is exotic in the way Broadbent describes the exotic nose of Mouton as Chinese spices. We have tea, truffles (funk), cardamon. Indian spices? There is acid in the front. Fruit is high toned. It all settles down and wasn't this a very fine bottle of wine? 13%

2006 Louis Latour Macon Lugny "Les Genievres" $42 (on the list, $20 retail): Stony, citric. Green apples. Mineral-like and lean. No oak. tBoW prefers this style of Chardonnay. Very nice bottle. 13.5%

2005 Grange des Rouquette Marsanne Viognier$8: A Robert Kacher Selection from the Languedoc. Chalky nose, lightly woody, call it balsa. On the lean side. Some honeydew melon emerges but it is too late. Lost interest. Probably one year past prime! 13%

I know what you're thinking. Where is Steve Guttenberg now? Find out easy enough online. Just turned 50. Hot work period was in the 80s. Still works on stage, Dancing With The Stars showing off a "hot press" facelift. Playing it a little safe. Best line from his IMDb bio "Spent a week volunteering at the Houston Astrodome after Hurricane Katrina hit". Bravo.

To cancel or not to cancel my wine club subscriptions? The economic crisis (i.e, we gonna have a lot less disposable $$) means making adjustments all down the line. Including wine...and especially wine clubs

tBoW subscribes to a handful or two of wine clubs including 20 year memberships in the Rochioli and Williams Selyem wine clubs. I sell off these wines because they are simply too damn pricey and having tasted 15 consecutive vintages from 1982 through 1997 I have a very good idea about what each winery aims for and how well they hit their marks (very well).

Fortunately, there are enough folks happy to buy the substantial annual allocations each winery offers me. Which someone else buys. However, if my "beards" have to give up buying the entire lot from either winery I will have arrived at the end of an era because I will drop my spot on those lists faster than a Wall Street downtick. Now there is an economic indicator of gloom and doom...when and if I have to drop these subscriptions because my surrogates are tightening their belts, too.

Then there are the comfy clubs. These wineries have more reasonable price points and/or make especially consistent wines that are worth the $$; in fact they are under-valued. One is quite pricey but I am convinced the wines are so special they are worth owning for consumption and not investment. In fact the idea of wine investment is silly. Until recently investing in pricey bottles was a lone mirage in the Sahara of wine trophies. Of course, one could say that about practically any investment now, from housing to gold to mortgage backed "securities". But wine? The $$ appreciation is rarely there. These are trophies owned by folks who need to impress someone else. The investment angle is just another selling point.

What will happen to our favorite wine clubs? You can be certain cancellations have already begun rolling in. tBoW canceled two and kept two favorites open. Mrs. tBoW loves McKenzie Mueller and tBoW is quite fond of Tablas Creek. So for the time being we make some room in the tightening home budget to support these two fine wineries.

Here is one prediction...expect to see plenty of sales in your quality retail shops. This could signal the rebirth of Trader Joes fine wine selections.

2005 McKenzie Mueller Pinot Noir $32 (wine club): Spine. This is what I think of when I taste this and other McKenzie Mueller Pinot Noir wines. The wine is made from estate grapes in Bob's stylistic preference. And that is with spine. Firm structure, strong tannic backbone, delicious high toned pinot fruit. Something like plum flavors dominate. Smoky and even exotic. He does not filter. 14.2%

2001 Soligamar Reserva $18: Practically perfect in every way that meets tBoW standards. Forward fruit neither overripe or out of whack. Low alcohol (13%), structured nicely, balancing tannins with medium weight body. And under $20. Alta Rioja blend of 75% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha and 5% Mazuelo grapes from old, low-yielding, high altitude vines. Another Kirkland Nation pick. Bravo. In fact bravissimo! I read a review that mentioned eucalyptus, cedar, dark fruit, traces of spice, juniper berry & leather. Huh? We can go with the dark fruit, spice and very soft leather. Sobaté baby. 13%

....and an oldie but a goodie.....

1991 Grgich Hills Estate Chardonnay: What a treat this was. In the 1970s California chardonnay was once the flagship grape, even moreso than Cabernet Sauvignon. Today most of Napa chardonnay are torn out and replanted to Cab. However, a few producers still grown what once known as the grape best-suited for the California climate. Grgich Hills was always considered a master producer and this particular vintage was considered to be one of the most memorable. The color was golden, just shy of orange. Would that be amber? Sure. The nose was spicy, oily like a great Reisling from the Saar. The flavors brought green apples and almonds to mind. Somewhat weighty feel. The best news is we had a few drinkers so there was plenty to go around. It was very very good. This is not the tropical banana fruit chardonnay that dominated the 80s and 90s and resulted in converting so many Napa vineyards to Cabernet. This is a style that we would like to see more of. Only 17 years old. If we were selling (or writing fro the Wine Spectator) we would call it legendary. Let's just say it is a classic with some time left on it. 13%