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

It is OK to stop eating now. And let me tell you the ladies who hosted the New Years Eve party (Tootsie) and the New Years Day party (Lettie) made it impossible to slow the cascade down my gullet. Prime rib and lasagna were followed by a torrent of extra special wines.

We can all go back to drinking excellent everyday U20 wines. The 2007 Christmas/Hannukah/New Years/Wedding Anniversary holidays are CLOSED. USC is the best football team in the nation and will open the 2008 rankings in the top 3. And we open at home against Ohio State. Now back to work!

These 2007 holidays came to a resounding close. New Years Eve with the Sinkowskis and New Years Day at the See-Glits, being awful damn friendly with new friends and old friends. We watched Uncle Pete and his Trojan Heroes obeying the Two Rose Bowl Laws: [1] It will be a beautiful SoCal day (the kind of day folks back east call "sun-splashed"); and [2] the Big Ten will lose.

The most interesting thing about the also-ran Illini was learning about the banishment (I mean retirement) of their beloved mascot (I mean symbol). There are at least half a dozen websites devoted to the controversial Chief Illiniwek.

The other important news about the Illini is they were the only team to beat OSU in 2007 which was enough to land them in the Rose Bowl for the inevitable thrashing. Wish it would have been the Buckeyes...soon enough my pretties.

If you think it might be interesting to read how Chicago sportswriter Steve Rosenbloom saw the game then click here. With a 49-17 USC victory in the books I can tell you now 2008 will bring another football championship to University Park...behind Mark Sanchez & Mitch Mustain, Stafon Johnson & Joe McKnight, and a defense that could be better than the #2 defense in the nation in 2007.

Here is a bucket of bottles that helped bring in the New Year.

2006 Marques de Caro Cherubino Valsangiacomo $11: 90% Mersequera, 10% Muscat. Alto Turia is the region. Mountainous region west of Valencia. Wine Expo is the local vendor. A moment to describe the Wine Expo where Robert Rogness roosts playing the vinous Lothario; think Orson Welles as Citizen Kane in a wine shop. Bombastic, impatient, ultimately charming and quite persuasive. His newsletter says he has the best selection of Ital wines and champagnes in the Southland...and maybe he does. Like Granpappy Amos might say "no brag just fack". If there is one caution it is that Rogness' tastes are wide ranging and on occasion mine do not match his...despite his enthusiasm. His newsletter is a hoot and fun to read. My brother-in-law shops there and always brings something direct from Robert's stacks. This is Spanish Blanco. First opened wine is always under added pressure to be good. It is. Quince and citrus then pear flavors in the middle and on the finish. Cannot top the U20 price. Good job Don Pharaoh.

2001 Ciu CIu Esperanto $30: Another Wine Expo selection. Could not uncover a millibyte of data on the web. It is a blend of Montepulciano and Cabernet Sauvignon. That's right, Montepulciano is a grape. Mixed with cab means Super-Tuscan intentions. Nice nose and flavors. Delicate with tannins present. Middle to light weight with some earth. Good fruit. Pronounced choo-choo. I liked it because it was so gentle. By the way, Esperanto is an international language created in the 1870s as a second language that would promote internationalism over nationalism. I wonder if "W" ever heard of it?

2002 Paul Lato Duende Gold Coast Vineyard Pinot Noir $25: Purchased at the 2004 Wine Cask Santa Barbara Futures Tasting. One of two wines that stood out for myself and Dotore' at this tasting and the next two (then we stopped going). Paul Lato is the winemaker who produces all of 75 cases annually. That Paul Lato will end up making thousands of cases each year for somebody is a done deal. It will happen. This first vintage is beautiful. It tastes like Pinot Noir fruit. The key flavor is sweet beets. Not veggie. Not cherry although it gets close. But sweet red beets. If that sounds ridiculous then you will have to figure this one out on your own. Here is a thought. Paul Lato captures pure Pinot Noir fruit in his wine. Smoke on the nose. Some in the taste. He has to work with Santa Rita HIlls high alcohol coming in at 14.3%. Which is low. One of the best in region. He kicks booty. His wines rock. He makes wine like Guns 'N Roses work over Paradise City!!! And we discovered him all..by..ourselves (and a couple hundred others).

Schramsberg Mirabelle NV: Venerable Napa sparkler. My first taste of this. Kind of lean, even weedy and soapy but not off-putting. More acidic with a reflux backwash. Sounds just super. WE did not hate it but it did not get a second pour from me.
Canard-Duchene Brut ~$35: This got a couple pours. Tangy orange fruit. Mandarin. Ripe. Really nice. Available in LA County at Wine House (West LA), Wine Country (Long Beach/Signal Hill), Heritage Wine (Pasadena).

2005 Foxen Sea Smoke Pinot Noir ~$45: Bought at the 2006 Wine Cask SB Futures Tasting. Sea Smoke is a coveted Santa Rita HIlls vineyard that is also one of the most coveted labels from the new Pinnacle of Pinot Noir. A big near jammy wine. 14.5% alcohol typical of the region. Says Dotoré "I no longer have a taste for these big wines". Me too. However, if you have the taste then this one is pretty well balanced and you will find it quite appealing.

2005 Pipestone Viognier $25: Shipped under Wine Club. Fruity and fairly forward. Not too much oak (7 months in barrel). 250 cases. Does not have the foxiness I sometimes find off-putting and that, I believe, comes from new oak. Guests preferred this to the Chalone PN (which I think says something about the Pipestone wine). Much more character here and a very nice wine. 14.5%.

2006 Domaine Colette Régnié Beaujolais $13: The first find of the new year. A WH/SG selection. Fruity, cherries, not jammy (!!), special. This is a Beaujolais cru with which I am not familiar. A Charles Neal Selection so there are excellent notes on the wine and the Regnie region. I will be visiting local wine whop Woodland Hills Wine Company to pick half a case. Thinking how nice this will be with Spring lamb being from a biblical shepherd family and all.

Here is one final biblical shot of Rey Maualuga making memories for the Illini quarterback and fans. Click here to see the photo of Rey Maualuga and local fan taken in August.

One of the early sequences in the Monty Python epic "The Holy Grail" is the "bring out your dead" scene (youtube link brings instant gratification lads and lassies). I am not sure why that scene reminds me of my Christmas Day party. Maybe because the day offers a few chuckles over some kinky exchanges. We had both this year with the surprise arrival of Little Stevie who moved to Paris several decades ago and made a life as a successful photog. Check out Steve Murez website. In the course of his very cool career he has been retained by the Wine Spectator to shoot wine dinners at 3 star Michelin restaurants around Europe and in the USA (that would be New York mainly). I wish I had pressed him more for Speculator stories. He did say something nice about Jim Suckling. He strongly suggested I rent Mondo Vino which is the Sicko of the wine industry so I could learn about the cozy relationships between big advertisers and high ratings. I will watch it. I already know that the Wine Spectator is the last place I would look for touts. I used to subscribe to WS and the Underground Wine Journal. More of that some other time. How interesting that Mondo Vino is also the name of a hot shit Denver wine shop (inadvertent web surfing outcome).

James Suckling has a blog where it appears he posts often. He lives in LA. His wine beat is Bordeaux. He posts vids (5 seconds with winemaker for Leoville Las Cases) which is cool. They were tasting the 2005 Bordeaux vintage. He tasted 900 Bordeaux wines in 12 days. This is a curse. He must be the Lebron James of wine tasting...skills and stamina beyond what is ordinary for the world's greatest athletes. The vids have decent resolution which makes me wonder what camera he is using so spontaneously. Maybe I will start doing vids! Check out Jim Suckling's blog. I expected much worse (some compliment, I know). In our wine tasting clique the Wine Spectator is the progenitor of everything wrong with wine. We certainly did not originate this idea but we do subscribe to it. I'm not saying I now am a reborn Bordeaux fiend. But I was pleased with what I found.

My beat is my Xmas party and the top wines were white on this day!! I have tossed in a couple reds from a dinner two nights later that are worth covering.

1978 Dom Perignon: Look what the Doc dragged in! Not a wine one sees every decade. Dotoré pulled it from Ma and Pa's closet. Looked to be in perfect shape from the condition of the box. Foil was flimsy but not stuck to the bottle so moisture contact was eliminated as a spoilage threat. Cork came out easily but not in a way that suggested leakage. Ullage (empty space at top of bottle created by normal evaporation) was absent, another good sign. We poured. Tiny bubbles rose to the top of our flutes...and kept rising. Brassy color like a slightly red lager. Caramel on the nose. Oxidation. Apple and cinnamon in the mouth. "The nose of history leads to mystery" said the Divine Ms. M who arrived early enabling her and her Rock to imbibe this rarity. And she was on the money. DP is the most widely known champagne in the world thanks to 007. The wine is a mystery to those drinking it for the first time because it is so damn expensive. But catch a sip and the next mystery hits; the wine is also quite austere. We saved a taste for Dotorés spouse who fashionably arrived 90 minutes later. We had to bring out the dead Dom as all life has passed by then.

Rene Geoffroy Rosé de Saignee $60: Purchased at Wades Wines on Wade's recommendation "20 cases came into the country; the French Laundry got 10 and I got the rest". First wine opened at Dr. Del's dinner party. Pink light strawberry color. Fresh, refreshing flavors. Delicate tang. Pinot Noir fruit from a premier cru vineyard. A non-U20 wine worth the splurge. Imported by Michael Skurnick Wines.

2006 Auvigue Macon-Villages Vendanges Manuelles $15: Manuelles means this is a hand-made wine. Outstanding value. White burgundy well made, balanced. Woodland Hills Wine Co purchase recommended by the redoubtable Steve Goldun (now shortened to WH/SG). Lemon rind, acidic, some bitterness but not off-putting at all. Fruity, steely. Loved it. I hope this is an indicator of what we can expect in wine bargains in 2008. Hardly seems likely given the dollar/Euro exchange rate. Here is a wine blog by someone who loves wines by Auvige. Worth reading, of course.

2005 Chateau d'Epire Savannieres $18: Dotoré loves to surprise me. And I love that. Here is one great example (there is another coming). This Chenin Blanc is downright feral. It actually reminds me of a Nahe Reisling. Oily, petrol. Also has grapefruit flavors. Exotic. The term I like is foxy. These are wines that do well with age. Drinking them now is interesting but they really turn out richly with time. Dotoré read this Slate article and took a leap. Nice hops my freng.

2001 Ipsus Passito $8/500 ml: The season's second miracle...a decent bottle of wine from Trader Joes. Can TJ's reclaim the mantle now covering Kirkland shoulders? This is a fine desert wine (muscat) from Sicily that brings dried apricots to your tongue. I read some pretty nasty reviews on the web that will probably deter me from buying more. Nevertheless, the bottle we had was just fine. Maybe it just goes well with honey-baked ham and tamales. Maybe it got better (passed a dumb phase?) after TJ got it on close out. Hard to beat this quality/price ratio.

REDS

2005 Chateau du Hureau Saumur Champigny $16: I get almost giddy when I learn a wine I tasted is a Charles Neal Selection...like this one. We were guessing what was the grape and ended up with Gamay and/or Cab Sauvignon (snobbily consulting the Hugh Johnson Atlas to learn these are two regional grapes). WRONG. This is 100% Cabernet Franc. I like cab franc a lot. Actually I prefer it to cab sauv. The Charles Neal site has an excellent description of the Chateau du Hureau and his wines Solid, middle-weight effort. Good plain fruit. I mean not tricked up with oak or over-ripeness. Cocoa in the mouth. I will be stocking up. Compare to domestic effort from Foxen below.

2005 Passopisciaro Rosso Sicilia $32: A WH/SG selection (haha!). Steve sold it to Dotore' telling him to think Pinot Noir. Well it has the weight of Pinot Noir and something like the game-y fruit. But the white pepper is not of Pinot Noir. But I like it in this wine. I do not usually describe the label but this one is worth it. Like medieval graffiti. LA Times food and wine critic S. Irene Virbila gave it an enthusiastic review. For pure style appreciation check out the Passopisciaro website. Molto forte!

2003 Foxen Tinaquaic Cabernet Franc $20: 140 cases made in 2004. Purchased at Wine Cask Futures tasting. Rich in nose and flavor. New world wine richness. Ripe, almost jammy. Black cherry, coffee/toffee. Middle to heavy weight. This is really good wine but I think I prefer the Saumur. Still, Foxen makes very nice wines, has a vision, and is located in really pretty country.

One more Python video... Only a flesh wound!

I really should tease the reader before getting to the Russian wine...but what the hey. The first wine is from the Republic of Georgia which is an ancient land with tremendous pride. I am posting the flag in case someone should get the wrong impression.

Kindzmarauli Kahketi Region NV$16: The wine was a gift from an associate(Georgian NOT Russian of course) who wanted to impress with a wine from the motherland. "I guarantee you have never had this wine". I did find it on the web as Georgian Royal Collection Kindzmarauli, naturally semi-sweet wine, 100% Saperavi varietal, from the Kindzmarauli microzone of the Kvareli area in the Kakheti region, Republic of Georgia. It has a distinguishable varietal bouquet, intense aroma, harmonious and velvety flavor". It is from an historical wine growing region in Georgia's Tusheti mountains and it is semi-sweet. 11% alcohol which is always commendable. The important point is that the sugar content of the wine is not enhanced. Is it late-harvested like a Primitivo? Dried on straw mats in the Tushetian sun like an Amarone ? A wikipedia entry claims Georgia is the "birthplace of wine" and the oldest wine producing region in Europe. Hold that correcting thought...Georgian wine apparently has neolithic roots (~7,000 years). We tasted this wine in granite goblets served with braised Mastodon. The missus did a nice job on the hairy relative of the elephant, a little tough from the retreating glaciers. The wine gave semi-sweet cheer to a generally hostile environment as we huddled around a fire shielded in a Kodiak bear's jawbone. Not a terribly long finish in a terribly long night. Yzumitelno!!

2004 Chinon Les Chiens-Chiens $15: Bought at K&L Wine Merchant. Cabernet Franc from the best known region in France for this grape. These wines stand in sharp contrast to California Cabernet Franc which is the source for my cab franc wine knowledge. The most famous cab franc is Bordeaux's Cheval Blanc which Miles downs with a burger in Sideways. [ed. Link goes to Miles dissing a Paso Robles cab franc!]. The vintage was 1961 which furthers the inside joke to wine snobs. Chinon is in the Loire Valley southwest of Paris (see map link below). I am learning these Old World Chinon wines are quite different than New World versions. California Cab Franc wines often a clear bittersweet chocolate flavor like 65% cacao bar. Chinon wines are more like 90% bittersweet. Almost dirty, earthy, dry. The fruit is there but needs time to emerge. I will not open these wines (I have a few in the cellar) until June. With BBQ skirt steak. Expect to be tasting more Chinons in 2008. 13.5%

2005 Chateau Champ des Soeurs Fitou Bel Amant $15: I have not run out of wines to review. Yes, this wine was reviewed in September. Six months later it still rocks. Now I have the labels. A Becky Wasserman Selection which is always a good place to begin. 60% Grenache then Syrah then Mourvedre. Yummm-meeee. Wonderful balance. On the flavor spectrum think of the Fitou as the mid point between jammy Cal wines and dry Chinon wines. We liked this one a lot and will return to get more.

2002 Beaune Vignes-Franches Premier Cru Domaine Chateau de Chorey~$35: Wasn't this special? Premier Cru vineyard outside the town of Beaune. Chateau de Chorey is a top producer. This is Red Burgundy at its price/quality best. Delicate nose. Cherry and game-y flavors. Light to middle in eight. All tannins resolved and gone. Showing very nicely for 5 years. Just perfect with the glazed plum chicken. 13.5%. Not a U20 but a very worthwhile O20 that defines wine intelligence. Excellent wine.

Tension builds as we await hot summer nights in Los Angeles that go so well with BBQs, lounging outside, dinner with friends and all kinds of wines. You can tell folks are getting restless when Memorial Day arrives with a full dinner party calendar. We attended two and, what a surprise, wine was the theme. One was a little more structured featuring Argentina wines and wine glasses with the tBoW URL!!!and our host's names in larger script - go figure. The second was more informal meandering through a cellar that needs purging. tBoW was careful to take notes for your information.

2007 Bartenura Moscato d'Asti $9: Summertime is for drinking Moscato d'Asti, the slightly sprtizy Itlaian wine that tastes like peaches and feels like 7-Up! This was bought at Costco. Another testament to the wine buyer there. I can only recall dreaming of the day any Moscato d'Asti might be in a Costco bin. Pinch me. It was so worth the $9 tag. Prices for these wines have crawled higher in recent years so this is quite the bargain. Forget the tasting terms dictionary and the wine wheel. This is purr-fekt for that hot evening outdoors. Brilliant blue bottle. Oy! It's kosher too. In case you did not already know..the alcohol on these wines are traditionally "lower"...like 5.5%!! We are not missing the "1".

2007 Montes Cherub Rosé of Syrah $12: Chilean "double gold winner" at San Francisco wine competition. One of those wines people buy because they like the label with the plump cherub. Imagine posting a bacchinalian chubby image as your symbol. Lovely ruby red. Syrahs tend to produce darker tones in pinkies. I prefer Syrah rosé and this is good enough but not my favorite. A bit grassy on the nose. Strawberry flavors. Would like more acid and more fruit. Applaud the screw top! 13.6%

2006 Les Aphillanthes Cotes du Rhone $10: Lacking in fruit, good acid, short finish. This wine tasted better with the cheese plate. I preferred it to the Montes. Nice enough but I am confident we can do better. Purchased at Hi Time. 13%

2004 Carinae Malbec Reserva $14: Purchased at The Wine Country. Briny, meaty nose. Not like many of the fruity and forward Malbec wines. Vanilla, baking soda, pumpkin bread. More mature in style. Maipu juice.

2004 Altocedro La Consulta Reserva $13: Costco purchase. From Valle de Uco, La Consula vineyard at 5,000 feet. High toned, creamy, tannic. Mocha powder (it's the tannins). Muted nose. Dark berry fruit. Taste the alcohol. Opened up nicely over an hour. Impressed the missus. Cannot beat the value. Will keep a couple years. Testimony to the palate of the new Costco wine buyer. 14.6%

1996 Condado de Haza Alenza $60 online: In the cellar since release close to a decade. Premium picked Tempranillo from Alejandro Fernandez's best Ribera del Duero estate. 2,000 cases aged 30 months in new American oak. We exoected it to be the best wine this evening. Shoe polish nose signals bretanomyces. Red brick color. Clear. Deep, mature, very nice. Balanced, gentle. Red berry fruit. Excellent. Somewhat surprising that 30 minutes later the fruit is gone. Drink up and be quick about it. 13%

1996 Justin Cabernet Franc $150 from the winery: When have you seen this wine? Fuggidaboudid. If you see it you have to open it...with some trepidation. The owner said he received it recently in a library release through Justin's wine club. Lively nose. Fresh fruit although somewhat muted. Flavors are very good. Blueberries. Soft and balanced. Tannin-free. The wine shows its age but it is holding up nicely. 30 minutes it remains drinkable. Justin makes the best cab in Paso which is a bit like Sid Vicious singing Sinatra. Or building the best boats in Death Valley. Mangled metaphors aside, this wine was pretty nice...and damned surprising. 14.1%

Hey!! Here's Sid now!!!

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%!!!

When the world seems upside down it makes perfect sense to turn to wines we know and love. We feature a few of these "comfy wines" in this post.

Hot off the press. LA Times covers everything you have been reading for weeks about falling prices on trophy wines, the inevitable rise of New World wines under $10, and the reluctant cancellations of wine club memberships, on tBoW. Click here to read what we already know.

2005 Tablas Creek Grenache Blanc $26: Sweet, with bright acid grapefruit flavors. Released in 2006 this wine is drinking wonderfully, cellared for more than a year. Still has a hint of wood. tBoW taster Tootsie says she's had this before. It's Oroblanco grapfruit. Say what? "In Israel, known as 'Sweetie'. Mid winter Oroblanco produces sweet seedless fruit even in areas of low summer heat. Huge, intensely fragrant flowers and attractive glossy foliage." Read about all kinds of citrus fruits at the Four Winds Grocers website here. I bookmarked it. An omigod 15.3%

2004 Tablas Creek Panoplie $68: [ed. Alert reader points out tBoW missed this price point. This is the release price for TC Wine Club members Serious thanx for the tip.] The TC flagship wine blends 69% Mourvedre with 21% Grenache and 10% Syrah. Like the name it is a "magnificent array" of TC's top red vines. A classic Rhone blend only made in exceptional vintages. Differs from the Esprit de Tablas Creek in two ways: proportions of Grenache and Syrah are reversed and the Esprit includes Counoise. This is big and jammy right now. tBoW team taster the Crackberry Kid distracts himself from his 24/7 mainline to everything anyone needs to know long enough to say "Nouveau Beaujolais". Then he busies himself looking up how many home runs Dick Allen hit in his career. [ed. 351] The wine should age plenty more years. Goes well with thick grilled pork chops and grilled pineapple, onions and red peppers. But it is still not too big or overwhelming. Somehow it seems restrained. Could be the food! 280 cases. 14.6%

Both wines are delicious and encourage the tBoW tasting team that things will get better!!

2004 MacKenzie Mueller Carneros Cabernet Franc $27: Another fine effort. Dark red robe. Cinnamon and spice. Dark chocolate finish. Perfect with steaks. A tad hot at 15.2%

2005 Williams Selyem Flax Vineyard Pinot Noir $54: Beets and smoke on the nose. Rochioli broods while WIlliam Selyem giggles. Cherries and cola (but not cherry cola) flavors. Young enough to show some tannins. 14.4%

Late word from the Crackberry Kid...a panoply is...oh, we already know.

As the Presidential campaign comes to a crushing close we are asked to focus our remaining attention muscles on voting. tBoW urges every reader to follow the same principles in voting that we advocate in selecting wines. People who "buy the label" will vote for the candidate with most seductive TV ads. They will be as disappointed in their candidate as they will in their wines, forced to utter platitudes and faith-based claims that they made a great choice. Folks who read a little will buy a wine for which they have a pretty good idea what will come out of the bottle. They will vote with what's left in their wallets for a balance between quality and value to the consumer. Trust and value and an informed position. Not the "razzle dazzle" Chris Matthews has tattooed on the McCain campaign. [ed. cantcha see Sarah P in this? yoobethca!]

Here are some "blochbustah" wines tBoW has been tasting on the campaign trail.

2007 Rusack Santa Barbara County Rosé $12 (at the winery): Raspberry and peach color. Soft watermelon gummi bear flavors. Made from Syrah and Grenache but you would never know the wine is so delicate and soft. Nice effort. 13.1%

2005 Koehler Syrah Estate $32 (at the winery): Big thick "man's wine". Syrupy and spicy. Hot on the first taste (high alcohol). Blends in with the powerful, brooding fruit. Think Ludwig Von. This has the best and the worst of Santa Rita Hills wines. Blow you away fruit with bowl you over alcohol. 15.1%

2004 Domain de la Chapelle Les Gallieres Chinon $15: Perhaps it was a mistake opening this after the Koehler. The wine could not stand up next to the dark and forebearing Syrah. This is Cabernet Franc however it is harvested not very ripe, somewhat lightweight. Not very much fruit flavors. 13%

2004 Chateau Gaillard Saumur $15: Dirty, flat, uninspired. Because this bottle was purchased from the same wine shop and said wine shop recently lost the clerk who had a sense of what tBoW liked and personally had tasted many of the wines in his shop...it reinforces an important principle of wine shopping. If the Prime Directive is find a shop that carries a nice array of interesting wines, the the Prime Prime Directive is find a sales person in that shop whose palate matches yours. If both conditions can be met then the likelihood of buying two dog wines like these at the same time from the same shop is greatly reduced. 12.5%

2002 Ojai Vogelzang Syrah $33: Unusual nose of garlic salt. Briny and earthy. The Vogelzang planting is in the southeastern corner of the Santa Ynez Valley where it is hot hot hot. The flavors are berry berry full of berry. Smoky, skunky, funky. The wine is well made but not too appealing at this point. Have had this more than a year ago and liked it better. 14.5%

1996 Chapoutier Chateauneuf du Pape Barbe Rac $112 (online today): The ringer, big ticket. A birthday gift to ubiquitous tBoW tasting team leader Dotoré (thank you). A "luxury" cuvee. Classic white pepper all over the nose. Idiosyncratic to some. Elegant to all. Liquer richness and intensity. Seems to be perfectly aged right now. Does not fade quickly. Holds up throughout the meal. Excellent French Syrah. 13.8%

I have begun to think of my cellar as a bunker. Members of the tBoW tasting team seem to share this view. The Act of Purging is as essential as other necessary functions that keep a storage center clean. We don't want "impacted" cellars. Here is what the Venice tBoW tasting team came up with recently at a hosted dinner on a balmy winter Saturday night in LA.

NV Moet & Chandon White Star $30: Who buys this wine? I am guessing I had my last bottle of White Star more than 20 years ago. Probably longer but who's counting? I might have been counting if I remembered the marque wine of Moet as having distinct lemon and pear flavors backed with a clear and firm spine. Rich and a bit sweet. Is it worth $30? Probably because I am hard pressed to think of another $30 champagne that would produce something supposed to be consistent this consistently (that is what a marque wine is supposed to do). Check out the smarmy corporate marketing video here. Who made this? Hammer Studios? tBoW liked the wine and encourages you to lower your snob quotient and accept any pours you may be offered this holiday season. Widely available at Kirkland Nation (aka Costco).

2005 Tablas Creek Roussanne $24: They make this wine in two styles. This is the "traditional, i.e., French" one. A bit smoky, aged in oak. Firm with pear and melon fruit flavors. Actually restrained and needing time to open a bit. Only 600 cases. 14.3 %

2006 Arnaud Gaujal Picpoul de Pinet $13: Value wine from the value region of Southwest France. We do not need a recession to recognize there are wines from the Languedoc that are and have been great finds for years. Delightful bright and fresh. You cannot go wrong with this wine. Serve it with salad and it holds up to any dressing I can think of [ed. the white wine acid test]. I know this will read wrong BUT the nose and flavor reminded me of shaving cream. A bit soapy but that is the dryness. Well balanced. Nothing out of sort. A tBoW bargain and I would buy it if I saw it. 13%

2000 Ch Petit-Figeac St-Emilion Grand Cru $40: Here is (one of) the problem(s) with Bordeaux. You can't tell the all-stars from the journeymen. Case in point. Chateau Figeac is a big hitter. Highly collectible (if you collect Bordeaux). And a St Emilion which is at southern end of the Girond and mostly if not all Merlot. But there are only about another dozen OTHER wines with the name Figeac. There is Franc Figeac, Yon Figeac...enough to confuse the Figeac family not to mention the unsuspecting consumer. This particular Figeac wine is from the 2000 vintage that actually delivered on the century wine hyperbole. Everybody buy now! The wine was tasty. Needed time to open up but then that is pretty standard with Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot-Cab Franc blends from Bordeaux. Drink enough of them and you will pine for the good old easy going big and blowsy Napa versions. You have to like Cabernet a lot to buy these wines. And you have to like the French style which means sit and wait 10 years or an hour. 13%

1998 Ch Blanzac Cotes de Castillon $20: Another uncelebrated (at least outside France and England) region near Bordeaux. This is another problem with Bordeaux wines. Wine collectors who wish to impress ASAP with their wine knowledge can easily "master" the First Growth wines of Bordeaux. There are only five. Too bad the 1st growths are so pricey because what good is newfound knowledge without opening the stuff you are touting? Of course, as in most of France (as well as Spain and Italy not to mention Austria and Germany), there is plenty of very good wine in the less heralded corners of the region. Mastery in the petit regions of Bordeaux, however, is another matter. Like studying for the LSAT. tBoW and Dotoré long ago realized if one is going to study wine then one may as well study the OTHER region of France with equally difficult lessons and infinitely greater rewards. That would be Burgundy. This nice Merlot was tight upon opening even at 10 years and even though from the unglamorous Cotes de Castillon. So chances are it was well made. It never had a chance to open because our host sucked it down like a sandworm hunting spice. He said he liked it. Urp. 13%

The dinner was Cassoulet which is a typical dish in the Languedoc. The red wines typical of Languedoc are Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre. tBoW taster Tootsie usually does it up pretty good.

Turn tough times to good times. Purge the cellar. Hold onto cash. As with everything there is risk. Cellar purging has the risk of finding forgotten wines. The last thing we need today is another letdown.

Feces occurs so often that when it does we think in familiar ways, like why we thought the wine would be GOOD. Good pedigree (Alejandro Fernandez), good score (Parker 91), good story (bottled only in the BEST vintages). How did we lose sight? How did we let a good wine go bad? Here is my story.

1996 Alenza ~$60: Once upon a time this was a great tempranillo. Highly touted. Soft and smooth like a...like a...complete that on your own. Blame it on tBoW. He sat on it too long. As I pull the cork I pray this one will tell me the other 2 bottles were corked. Painful truth. The wine is just over the hill. Like a Republican candidate. Dies faster than a vampire born with a stake in its heart or a November World Series. Within minutes it tastes tired, gnarled. Like it just wants to fall into the abyss without notice. [ed. getting a little dark here] The real bad news is I still have 3 bottles. Family holiday gifts!?! 13%

Another equally maudlin story is a one-hit-wonder wine always on the fringe, in the periphery. A notorious loner. Like the Shangrilas (who had a string of hits) said "he's good bad but he's not evil". Tell me mo' tell me mo'....


2003 Melville Verna's Syrah $56: Bought this bad boy at the winery just as tBoW was beginning to fall out of love with Santa Rita Hills wines. Sterno alcohol levels were not yet the baccio dela morte that killed the romance. This is the second bottle tasted in 24 months. Tastes a lot like the first one which is pretty good! Jammy to be sure. Dark dark fruit. Coffee flavor. Distinctive like Melville says. The 100 acre vineyard is not located in Santa Rita Hills proper but rather outside the tine town of Los Alamos (click here for clarifying map), on the way to Santa Maria north and east of Santa Rita Hills. There is plenty of good growing turf outside SRH. We wish other local winemakers would adopt Paul Lato's point of view that the regional fruit is big enough and should actually be toned down! This wine, however, reflects the prevailing POV where bigger is better. Not quite bombastic, the Melville wine would not look out of place under the wing of an Apache Longbow. As we threw down the mother-of-all-over-the-top-wines we wondered what would the Kenneth-Crawford team (aka Kings of Extraction) do with Verna's fruit? You can find out yourself. Their current release includes a $34 Verna's Syrah which is actually good value for the region. The ankle bracelet is extra.

Every motley crew has one decent player. In this group it is a wonderful Italian white wine that Costco carried all summer. [ed. imagine an entire generation only knows Motley Crüe the Hollywood band. Click here if you MUST see the Dr. Feelgood vid]

2007 Falanghina dei Feudi di San Gregorio $10: Coco-nutty and floral nose with key lime flavors. After lying open a few days it tasted nuttier and just as good. Great value. The story: only the "free run" juice goes into the bottle. The varietal is Falanghina. The vineyard has 20 y.o. vines. Viva Italia and viva Kirkland once again. 12.9%

2002 Marques de la Concordia Signa Reserva $16: We will be seeing more of these kinds of wines. Gelsons Market special. A Mrs. tBoW impulse buy. How bad can it be? Well, tBoW is not fond of Tempranillo. I find it to be fairly undistinguished among red wines. Fruity, moderate flavors. Middle to heavy weight. This wine is 100% Tempranillo, aged in the high profile oak program. A bit overripe for my taste. Nice enough but I know there are better wines to be had out there. Like the next one. Aged in new French and American oak. Six years later the oak has given up the fight and the raisiny fruit has won. Worth $8 so at this price it is overripe and overpriced. 13.5%

2001 Marshall Cellars Juliet Peery $10: Now this is the kind of deal we are actually looking for...and expect to see more of. A good wine that went bad because nobody would buy it at the posted price. Don't blame the wine. 1500 cases of this vanity project with a bottle you can heft to the oldies. And so handsome! Wide at the shoulder, tapering down to the punt. Clean label design quietly announces its presence. Recommended release price $55. What do you think Whole Foods had to pay to put this out at $10? Marshall had several hundred cases still in warehouse from a phenomenal vintage and said "get rid of it". Lucky for Whole Foods and lucky for us. To quote
Dotoré the Discoverer "it's the kind of wine you can take to a holiday party and nobody will know you paid $10". Sometimes he is so shallow...but always correct. Because the wine is good. Eight years later the Bordeaux blend still has legs after several days with just a cork in the bottle of steel. Napa floor and Carneros hills fruit with serious tannins that have mellowed but remain present, if less feisty. Great Napa premium flavors with enough Merlot and Cab Franc (24% combined) to keep the Cab in its place. 14.3%

I am still trying to get used to the new awareness of U20 wines. Of course, I am referring to the robust lists of wines in the Wine Speculator under $20 in red, white, and pink. Looks like a couple hundred. If I wasn't so damn cheap I would buy the magazine and see for myself. However, the gap between tBoW and the Wine Spectator is wider than Julia Roberts' smile especially when her mouth is open. My god.

I also am not keen on using WS for attention. Honestly. I just find it odd that these lists appear in the same issue - or at least in the same cognitive world - as Tasting Six Years of Screaming Eagle and the demise of the Wine Cask store and restaurant in Santa Barbara due to the economic collapse. [ed. does this mean the futures tasting is finally finished?] Makes one wonder how the subscription curve for the flagship of "lifestyle wine" has trended in the past 12 months.

Robert Mondavi made the Wine Spectator possible. Mondavi created the wine lifestyle genre just like Francis Ford Coppola created cascading scene crescendos to close a film. Marvin Shanken saw the opportunity to create a Rolling Stone for wine as glamorous lifestyle. Just like Jann Wenner did for rock and roll in the psychedelic era. The RS morphed from one of the first home grown local music zines into a lifestlye bible for generations of would-be rockers and so many more social strata. Is this the path WS must follow? Will WS become a communication hub for the new frugality and value-driven wine consumption? Or is WS more like AIG trying to find any way to survive in the hope somebody, anybody, will offer a buyout that saves face and clears "obligations".

Get real. Predictable 2010 headline in WS: "Wine World Expo Hosts Will Wait a Year!!"

Here are some wines worth checking out or forgetting about.

2003 McKenzie Mueller Cabernet Franc Napa Valley Estate $30 (wine club): Sweet, fruity. Cherry and spice. Earth tones common with Cab Franc are subtle now. Even through the alcohol is a bit up there it does not show through in the nose or mouth. At five years the wine has melded nicely. It is also unfiltered which is typical Bob Mueller style. You have to like this style of unfiltered somewhat rustic wines. They are still elegant like a country gentleman. Hello Beauregard. Or maybe Andrew Jackson who was reluctant to move to the White House. I can assure you Bob Mueller would resist moving into celebrity winemaker status. He does not submit his wines for review by WS. I think of his wines as slightly feral. If you are looking for refined, polished, glossy fruit try Justin Winery. 14.8%

From the CarlitosWay Collection...

2003 Chalk Hill Cabernet Sauvignon $60: Cherry vanilla, solid middle weight, tannic, yummy with the steak and spud at Taylors on Vermont and 8th. If LA has a complement to Sams or Tadich in SF this is probably it with the red and black leather booths. Good long finish. Some black olive in the mid-palate. 79% Cab Sauv; the rest is Merlot, Malbec Cab Franc, Petit Verdot. In other words, a Bordeaux blend. A 94 pointer and sold out at the winery. 14.8%

2003 Grgich Hills Napa Cabernet Sauvignon $75: Aromatic and powerful nose. Medicinal. Distinctly different to the Chalk Hill. This is older style Napa Cabernet. Classic 70s era. Dark black berry in the mouth. Honestly, tBoW prefers the Chalk Hill but I admit I just do not have a palate for wines this big any longer. Of course, you don't see me pouring out my glass either. 14.7%

2001 Chalk HIll Estate Merlot $50: Veggie on the nose giving way to creamy vanilla flavors. Includes 16% Malbec and Petit Verdot which with 77% Merlot begs the question...what else is in here? Not especially impressive. Cabernet is superior (of course the Cab is from a different vintage but 2001 was also highly regarded). 89 points from Parker for the digital palate people. 14.5%

Just when we thought we were completo...Carlitos pulls out a surprise...

2002 Grgich Hills Violetta $50: A delicious dessert wine from Mike Grgich. This is beautiful. Properly chlled it is like a nectar, an ice cream topping without the ice cream. Figs, dates, tangerine, marzipan. Full bodied and rich. I imagined I was in a Bedouin tent being treated like an honored guest. Multi-layered flavors...first the grape, then the fruit flavors, then candy sweetness like cotton candy. I have only detected the cotton candy in a 1983 Mosel Riesling from . This is a blend of botrytis-affected Riesling and Chardonnay. Wine of the evening. 14.2%

This weekend June 13 & 14 consider doing the Topanga Canyon Artists' Studio Tour. It is tBoW's favorite summer event. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Topanga home you would never see except for this tour pictured below.

As we roll into summer you may enjoy a runup in invites to dine al fresco with friends and acquaintance. tBoW encourages using such occasions to raid the hosts' wine cellar. Why be just polite when you can also be rapacious? [ed. Mungo Jerry signals the official arrival of another LA SUMMER]

The scene is a Memorial Day last minute dinner at the home of good friends. The offer is to pull anything you like from the cellar. We came up with a Bordeaux and a Ribbon Ridge Pinot Noir. Not bad!

2002 La Tour Haut Brion $50 online: A holiday gift from someone in the same business as our host. Meant to impress. At 7 years old it is still young and showing tannins with plenty of Cabernet Franc fruit. The wine is very nice and since we rarely drink Bordeaux wines this is certainly a treat. Goes perfectly with the grilled steaks. It is impossible to write about Bordeaux wines without giving some background. The region is almost universally the introductory wine experience for wine snob novitiates. Bordeaux wines have the right features for newbies: "unquestioned" pedigree, comparatively few labels, prestige pricing, and decent wine. In some cases snobs-in-training start with California. What is interesting is how many wine-os never move past Cabernet Sauvignon thereby becoming faux snobs. For the record, LA Tour Haut Brion is the "second" label for La Mission Haut Brion. This means the wine is made from young vines (figure under 10 and probably closer to 5 years) and is not permitted in the premium batch. For an absolutely classic and haughty article on the Haut Brion wine scene click here.

2006 Aramenta Reserve Pinot Noir $43: Aramenta is the adjoining property and neighbor to Ayres, lauded in the recent Oregon Pinot Noir reviews. tBoW has had Aramenta in the past and enjoyed even though he found it too sweet to purchase it was not so sweet he would turn it down. This is from the ripe 2006 vintage. It is dark red but still not so dark to be mistaken for something other than Pinot Noir or Gamay. Sweet, burnt brown sugar. Kinda big. Would like to try this again in a year's time.

2006 H Pinot Noir $20: We did not get to pick this wine. It was offered as an example of the expanding ocean of "high end" wines now reduced and hitting the consumer market like bugs on the Interstate. Formerly $50 he picked up this H Pinot Noir for $20. The story is "right" with 198 cases and "hand-harvested" Sonoma fruit. Of course, good value requires two components: price and quality. The alcohol is way too high for this Sonoma wine produced and bottled in Paso Robles. The fruit that is there cannot fight its way past the ethanol curtain. Not to be confused with Oregon's Hamacher H wine from Willamette Valley. Or Macy's bedding line with the same logo. 15.55%

2007 Domaine du Vissoux Pierre-Marie Chermette Fleurie Poncié $20: This is the first Cru Beaujolais tasted from this vintage. tBoW flipped over the village Beaujolias from the same producer in the tBoW review last August. The contrast is striking. The cru wine is more intense overwhelming any of he other components such as alcohol and tannins. It is big and fruity. Word to Dotoré: While this Beuaj is very nice now tBoW looks forward to trying it again in a year. Reminds me of the 2006 Jean Paul Thévenet Morgon "Vieilles Vignes" that showed so much better one year later. $13%

The host made up for the BBQ-lighter Pinot Noir with a Canadian sweetie available at BevMo.

2006 Jackson-Triggs Proprietors Reserve Vidal Icewine $16: Out comes a specially packaged tube of Canadian late harvest something. Shows bright acid with ripe apricot and mango flavors. Very nice and refreshing. The region is Niagra and the grape is a 1930 hybird known as Vidal Blanc, named after the bio-engineer who crossed Ugni Blanc with Rayon d'Or to get a cold weather high sugar varietal. The bottle at 187.5 ml is the tiniest ever seen outside an airplane. A very good U20 dessert wine. 10.5%

Last minute travel to Lake Tahoe. No time to plan the wine program. Will have to rely upon the fetching wench to quench the thirst of masses (including tBoW). She turns in a stellar performance in the wine department and in the boggle pit and makes a very strong case why Navarro Vineyards and Winery of Mendocino belongs in the constellation of Under-the-Radar stars along with Tablas Creek of Paso Robles.

2007 Canayli Vermentino di Gallura $18: Torrontes-like given the oily texture, fruity flavors. Somewhat rich. Slight bitterness. Very good choice for the just-flew-in from-LA arrival wine. 13.5%

2007 Parteaguas La Borde Vieille $50 (?): Refreshing lime with all the acid backbone. A wine made by Hugo d'Costa from Guadaloupe Valley in Baja Mexico. Check out previous tBoW posts on the slowly advancing wine scene in Baja. This wine is made in Guadaloupe at d'Costa's Paralelo or Casa Piedra winery with juice from the winemaker's French vineyards. That's right. He ships the Old World juice to the New World. Not surprisingly, it tastes French. 13.5%

2008 Domaine de Fontsainte Gris de Gris $11: Epic pink Corbieres gumbo yaya blend of 60% Grenache Gris and Grenache Noir; 5% Syrah; 10% Mourvèdre; 15% Carignan; and 10% Cinsault. Red luminescence on a cool summer evening in the world class alpine resort Lake Tahoe. Beautiful color. Firm and masculine. Balanced. Very nice and easily the most heroic wine of this trip and super value. 13%

2005 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel $30: Best value at $69 on the wine list. Sure there are restaurants all over The City with better wine lists and better values. However, they may not have a better wine in terms of pure vine to vine comps. And it is tough to find a better setting than a table on the dock at Westshore Cafe with a sun setting in ultra slow motion over the lake. The label says honey and peaches. The blend is 70% Rousanne, 25% Grenache Blanc and 5% Picpoul. We taste the flinty, mineral and smoke Grenache Blanc. Peaches come around in a bit which is just fine since we may never leave this setting and just hang in the endless twilight for another couple hours. 14.5%

2007 Cascina Ca Rossa Nebbiolo di Roero Rosato $19: This is pink Piemonte 100% Nebbiolo wine, probably young vines, bottled quickly for equally fresh consumption. A bit flabby without much character or spine. It is plummy with some tannin so maybe plum skins. 13.5%

2007 Navarro Mendocino Pinot Noir $23: The winery's "entry level" bottle. Why do we not own more Navarro wines? Blackberry flavors. New world all the way with the plummy yummy while and not in the overripe style. It has to be the northern climate. You need a case of this wine. From their Summer Sampler. 13.8%

2007 Navarro Navarrouge $14: Now here is an interesting blend of "Mendocino natives": Valdiguié, Syrah, Zinfandel, Carignan, Pinot Noir, Cabernet, Petite Sirah, Grenache, and Cinsaut. This is meant to capture the best ready-to-drink qualities from Southwestern France. Think Languedoc, Montpelier, St. Chinian, Fagueres. Straightforward, no apologies Dago Red. Soft, nice but just enough acid to keep it bright and fruity. Navarro's companion to Tablas Creek's excellent Rhone style Cote de Tablas. Loved it. 13.9%

2007 Navarro Chardonnay $25: The piece de resistance, show stopper, surprise winner. Out of the pack, from nowhere. Having just trashed Chardonnay as pretty much a varietal holding little interest for tBoW along comes this wine we would never pick as California Chardonnay. No oak. No bananas or pineapple/mango/papaya. How about minerals and stone berries [ed. what are stone berries?], creaminess, starwberries, cheescake and, yes, some pineapple. North of Sonoma is a winery making awfully good wines THAT WE LIKE at very fair prices. 13.6%

The sun hangs high every day at the beach. Chairs face the lake so we can watch mountains which never go anywhere. Like us. Boggle skirmishes become battles as the lake laps on the sandy shore of our very tiny, very quiet inlet. The day is endless. The sun never goes down...until it finally fades to orange and pink. Warm breezes become cool relief. We watch the boats tied up on the blue, then blue black, then black lake. Dock lights make it all look like some long summer party.

Turn in and do it again tomorrow. We once spent three weeks in August up here and the third was absolutely timeless.

It can get pretty strange around this town. And the place where LA is most bizarre is a Lakers game. Blend Us Weekly with In Style with Enquirer and read the super rag in a celebrity cemetery. tBoW attended the only Lakers game he will attend this season. Kloe Kardashian sat 10 feet from Frank Robinson. That's right. The only MVP in both leagues and arguably the greatest pound for pound baseball player of all time; a Henri Jayer Cros Parantoux of an athlete. 10 feet from a Dubouef Nouveau Beaujolais. Guess who got the most attention. Not that Frank did not have visitors and folks begging for a photo. At the end of game (more ordinary like a Central Valley Merlot) the bored courtside photographers, who had been shooting the action non-stop, all turned at once and took their paparazzi shots of Lamar Odom's newly betrothed. One fan close to tBoW's age sitting nearby asked for Frank to stop and pose for his cell phone cam. Frank obliged. After all, the man won the Triple Crown the year he was traded to the Orioles and once hit back to back grand slams.

Now for LA weird. tBoW once watched Dom Delouise swallow a bird in front of a horrified crowd of parents at a school fundraiser, after Dom spun the bird on a stick in a way that would give PETA people nightmares. That's the warmup act. At halftime of the Lakers/Hornets game a very slight woman with trademark blonde curls, covered head to second knuckles to instep in sweater and jeans, made her way to the tunnel where the visiting team comes and goes. She waited. She never took her eyes or attention from the tunnel. She was close enough tBoW could see flourescent light bounce off her tight and tawny face. Her full red lips hovered like two engorged leeches between her Michael-Jackson-perfect chin and nose. The Hornets eventually returned to the court to sleep walk another 24 minutes. As coach Byron Scott appeared the 90 pound [ed. if that!] waif rushed to him and threw her arms around Scott's neck. She whispered in his ear and stroked his cheek until he smiled then disentangled himself returning to the bench. Sated, for now, she turned and headed to her baseline seat. It was Dyan Cannon, celebrity fan from the Showtime 80s who once got as much attention as Jack. I guess she still has her seats but feels obligated to cover up everything lest she be captured by paparazzi. They still care. Two "fans" behind me spent the game calling out new celebrities. Leo DiCaprio! Maria Sharapova! Toby Maguire! The back of Nicholson's head! When I checked they had never heard of Dyan or Frank.

Kobe had 26 in the first half. Robby is two years older than Dyan.

Now wine can certainly be silly but rarely is it perverse. Even the LA-based wineries do not sink to the depths our celebrity population finds so comforting. The closest we come is the all-too-common bombastic review, but these inspire more humor than horror. A top SoCal retailer pushed us to wikipedia to figure out what exactly is raspberry coulis!

The wine leads off with an enticing nose of violets and framboise followed by a creamy smooth, layered palate of black raspberry and black cherry fruit nuanced nicely with hints of carob, cardamom and cinnamon stick. The wine's velvety texture is a real turn-on while its long, even-keeled finish provides additional flavorful hints of milk chocolate, raspberry coulis and crème de cassis! The fruit purity at play here is simply amazing! So, too, is the wine's superb length and depth of flavor complexity.

Tanks gott for wikipedia: Coulis (kool-ee) is "...a form of thick sauce made from puréed and strained vegetables or fruits. A vegetable coulis is commonly used on meat and vegetable dishes...Fruit coulis are most often used on desserts. Raspberry coulis, for example, is especially popular with poached apples."

Oh. The wine was was sweet. At least it was $10.

2004 Foley Santa Rita HIlls Pinot Noir $33: Acidic, citric. The mid level Foley bottle which means it should be consistent. Does not taste like a Pinot Noir. Medium to lightweight body and getting thinner by the minute. Toted in by Dotoré who expected much more; has tasted much more from several bottles. Just not in balance. Not showing well at all. Is it breaking apart? Did not change with time in the glass. 14.3%

2006 Paul Lato Fiddlestix Sine Cerra $65: Paul Lato is one of the winemakers singled out by Haeger in hIs wonderful guide to domestic Pinot Noir [ed. that is, California and Oregon]. Of course, if you have been following tBoW for more than a year you would have read about Paul's wines in Jan 2008 and you might have bought some of his wines for yourself! Now everybody knows and his wines cost a fortune! And you cannot get them. Well this is one of those wines worth the steep entry price. The wine is transcendent. Dense and intense. But not lysergic like a Tolmach wine can get. Weight is light to medium. Fruit is SRH ripe but still showing Lato's restrained sensibility. Dotoré fairly flipped somehow finding vindication for the disappointing Foley. 14.7%

1999 Silverado Sangiovese $40 in magnum: For every exclusive and unavailable wine there is some throwaway loss leader that in order to acquire, just like the exclusive bottle, you gotta be there. This bottle in mag was on the counter last time we were at the winery. The price was right and we sprang. Missed our Turkey day plan to open it for at least two years only recently popping the cork. At ten years this wine is completely integrated. There are no tannins. It is a nice light to medium bodied Itaiian red wine. No acidic undertones. Nice Napa wine that complemented the lasagna. 14%

2002 McKenzie Mueller Cabernet Franc $39: Ripe fruit with typical rustic quality and restrained style. Bob Mueller makes terroir driven wines from a small farm in Carneros. They are built to age 5 to 10 years. He makes local, personal classic wines. Down home Napa bred. A real throwback and worth finding. Think of him as the Brett Favre of Carneros. 14.7%

The USC Trojan football season is officially over. RIP.