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

2005 l’Uvaggio di Giacomo Vermentino $11: Finally, an opportunity to write about a Jim Moore wine. First, a few words about Jim. He is one of many winemakers who are not media stars. However, he is widely regarded within the winemaking industry as a “go-to” person
when you need something done. Looking for premium juice for sale by a high-profile winery? Call Jim. Need more super-premium French oak barrels? Jim probably knows where they can be had. Want to start a winery from the ground up? Do a custom crush? Fill-in a sudden and unexpected hole on your winemaking team because the winemaker for your long-standing label just went elsewhere? Want to turn around your wine program for your winery that is one of the oldest in the valley? He is the man to see. I am sure there are others like Jim in Napa. He knows them all, too. And what of his wine? Distinctive, meaning his wines share certain qualities regardless of the grape or employer. This Vermentino has all the earmarks of Jim Moore wine. He got the grapes from old old vines in Lodi. My summer reading includes “Blood and Wine”, the unofficial story of Gallo wines, and Lodi goes way back in California wine history. Jim knows. Read more about Moore here. His Vermentino is from young Lodi vines, fresh and light, balanced with a subtlety that you do not even think about the alcohol (12.5%!!) or any kind of awkwardness. Perfect summer style. Flavors bring lime, some white grapefruit (Indian River?), citrus rind (pick-a-fruit). Acid supports the overall tart and bright experience. It is available but good luck finding it.

2005 Edward Sellers Grenache Rosé $12: The good dokker paired this Paso effort with the Languedoc wine below. The objective was to compare two fruity wines from the two distinctive regions that we are always yapping about. First sip showed hugely fruity and sweet flavors. I did not like it…at first. The dokker’s wife (see photo) was disappointed since she picked it on their last trip top Paso. It is a remarkable achievement that when spouses play bridge or taste wines together there is always something on which we can disagree. Aha! As my palate re-tuned from the more mineral continental roses’ I have been quaffing to the fruit bomb side of things I began to find the strawberry flavors more seductive and charming. We killed the bottle with flair. 14.2% alcohol. Nice wine from Edward Sellers. [URL]

2005 Mas de Brassandes Costieres de Nimes $10: Curiously, the good dokker had this rosé from last summer already chilled. He called it a transition wine (evening plans and all). It was also a fruit bomb. And from SW France. Nimes is squarely in the Languedoc which is a region everyone who loves wine should visit at least once. Topographically identical to SoCal with wall-to-wall vineyards and chateaus. The principal grapes are grenache, syrah, mourverdre, and carignane. I have probably already written it but let me do so again (in case I already have). The Languedoc is traditionally the garbage hole of wine. Critics love to tell how the region produces so much ordinary and sub-par wines that in years with an especially large harvest the wine is sold off as fuel. This has changed in some measure over the past decade as French and international winemakers have recognized the conditions are outstanding for producing quality and even better the cost of vineyard land is (was?) extraordinarily attractive. I like to recall our 2001 trip to St. Chinian when it was almost impossible to find a bottle costing more than 10$. And the wine was fine….bring-it-back-in-your-son’s-backpack fine.

1997 Rochioli Allen Vineyard Chardonnay (cellar): Controversial wine for me. I have been a wine club member since the early 80s. I have tasted Rochioli through 20 plus vintages. In 2006 I sold off my remaining collection going back to 1996 to a dear friend who was more than happy to take it off my hands. This wine is from the dokker’s cellar. It is complex. “Coconut” says dokkerm. “Quince” says I. We agree tropical aromas and flavors emerge over 40 minutes in the glass. Tons of acid. The wine is still young. Dokker says it will not get better. I play my collector trump card and say it will go at least another few years, possibly longer. Playing my collector trump with the dokker is silly since he has tasted through my entire collection. Still looking for a path through his usually invulnerable intellect I suggest this wine captures the problem for me with Rochioli. It is too complex. “Too serious?” he snorts. Yes. I ask Gail (see photo above) what TV game show she would rather, Championship Jeopardy or Deal or No Deal. No contest. Deal gets her vote. Williams Selyem is Deal/No Deal. The look-alike babes march over the grandstand in their short satin dresses with their black leather suitcases and it’s all downhill from there. Turn off sound and dig the chicks hamming it up. Rochioli is Championship Jeopardy. Stay sharp. Hit and miss hoping for a category where you actually have some expertise. Fight intellectual exhaustion. Pat yourself on the back 30 minutes later for surviving with some pride intact. “Too many notes” said the King. Rochioli is top of the RRV heap with possibly “the best situated vineyard in North America”.

2006 Curran Grenache Blanc ~$20: This is the 3rd vintage of this wine I have tasted…and enjoyed. In each vintage it is a late bloomer. Drink this in the first 6 months of release and you will ask yourself what is all the fuss. Wait 9 months (only another 3 or so, sit down) and you will be very happy. Give it a year and you will be amazed at how much this wine changed. At first it is recessive, withdrawn, almost sullen. Like first seeing Juliette Lewis in Cape Fear. So awkward. When she starts to mature a bit the charms emerge, slowly, gracefully. And after a full year she is all charm, delicate fruit, sparkling flavors, like a kiwi-blueberry-custard fruit tart. Too much to taste in one swallow. Kris Curran is a terrific winemaker (she makes Sea Smoke which is generally opened way too early). This meets the $20 criterion (maybe a little more but worth it) and is age-worthy (if a couple years count). That's Kris on the left and her dear friend Strummy on the right. Curran Wines

Not one of the three wines reviewed is under $20. Not my fault. And, as you will learn, I cannot say I regret it.

During these dog days of summer when the temps hit 100 in the LA industrial interior you need a really good reason to drive 50 miles one way just to see some old pals starting a new wine venture. As I passed the Commerce Casino on a stretch of freeway where trucks outnumber automobiles I considered what I was doing here...so far from my pool and bike trails.

I was on my way for lunch with old friend and wine biz veteran Greg Gilooly and his partner Alex Correa. Greg is like the Hoyt Wilhelm of wine, well traveled because he can still throw the drop ball. If Greg is the cagey vet, then Alex is Tom Glavine, the steady winner. Greg has been in every part of the business and more than once in each. Want to know more? Founding partner in the Wine House, arguably LA's biggest wine retailer. They carry everything you would ever want. He owned a distribution company, a wine shipping and storage and another more recent wine retail shop. Now he is back in the storage and shipping business with WineBridge. He graciously invited me to visit the facility in an industrial part of LA most people pass through. Seems like there are two trucks for every car on that stretch of concrete.

After we visited, toured the "airplane hangar" perfectly temp controlled, and talked about trucking strategies, it was off to lunch at ABC Seafood in Monterey Park. For those not from these parts Monterey Park is home to reputedly the finest Chinese restaurants west of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Like Grampappy Amos used to say ("Luke...") "no brag just fact".

I was pleased to see that Greg's sense of direction was as bad as mine. Neither Alex or I offered advice being content to roam until we ran into the place. DokkerM would call this the way of men or something like that.

There are so many ABC restaurants in LA I have to wonder if the same thing happens in China. This is stupid of course since I cannot read Chinese script and Chinese people will say anything just to laugh at how stupid I am. Dim sum at lunch as one would expect. So good I tried to engineer a "special" birthday brunch for the subsequent Sunday for my daughter's 20th. But she saw through my ploy and we ended up eating pizza.

2005 Sea Smoke Ten: Brooding, serious, medium weight, one of the main the reasons Santa Rita Hills are a hot area for growing and producing pinot noir. There are tea flavors but mostly ripe SRH fruit. Winemaker Kris Curran is one of the important names behind the wine. The Ten is the high end bottling from 10 different clones in the estate vineyard. OK. 14.9% alcohol. Yow. At least it doesn’t burn. I’m probably a wimp in the eyes of SRH winemakers. http://www.seasmokecellars.com/sections/our_wines/tasting_notes.html

2004 Vocoret Chablis Vaillons Premier Cru: When did I lose track of these wines? I used to love Chablis wines. I think I memorized the Grand Cru vineyards. Maybe they got too pricey (likely) and I just burned out on white burgs (not likely). This wine was once sold by Greg G around $15. Today? $XX. It is not in the flinty style often attributed to Chablis. Has lemon nuance, ripeness, neither plump or lean. Was 2004 a ripe vintage? Absolutely lovely. 2005 village wine is $15. The Blanchot will run you $40 (but it is Grand Cru). You can still buy Vocoret at Heritage Wines in Pasadena.

2000 Uvaggio Il Leopardo: The question is whether the wine is tired. It is California Nebbiolo made by Mr. Jim Moore. The wine has sat in my cellar for a week with temp controlled. It is brackish red in the glass. The nose is delicate, suggesting something aged but not retired. The flavor is aged Barolo, lighter, delicate, familiar flavors of rose and tar. Delicate. We start lunch with this wine and finish with it 90 minutes later, still charmed.

All three wines were excellent with the dishes of BBQ pork, broccoli, shrimp and some kind of shellfish dumpling. I selected cubes of bean curd with sesame flecks for desert. It tasted like sesame gelatin and looked like opaque pepper jello. It was terrific. When do we go again boys?

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.

1994 Leroy Pommard Les Vignots about $200): Fuggedabout da price. First some catty background. Madame Lalou Bize-Leroy was drummed out of DRC, Burgundy's most coveted house. She focused on her own label Leroy with ferocity. That's it for the gossip. This link is much more informative. You can also read about the 1994 vintage in Burgundy here.. All this reading suggests the vintage was not that great but that great producers made great wine despite the climatic challenges. Reading also suggests Leroy has re-released many older wines of late making wines like this one available when they would otherwise not be available at all. As the fellow who introduced Dotore' and I to Burgundy said when we asked the price for the bottle of heavenly exotic flavors he had just poured "it's not a question of price, it's a question of availability". As for this wine...it was very interesting and wonderful. The difference between Tia Maria and Kahlua is the caramel in Tia Maria. This wine has that Tia Maria quality. The longer it was in the glass the more the caramel flavors emerged. Color shows aging. Nose was profound right at the start. No barnyard. Lean, sinewy. Attractive for a middle-aged gal just like the proprietress. I'm a chauvinist! I gottatellya it was harder finding a photo of the Madame than Adam Tolmach and that was near impossible.

1998 Franz Hirtzberger Smaragd Hochrain Riesling $18: "The hills are alive..." This is the Wachau Valley in Austria, close to Vienna. It is the most famous wine growing region in the Sudetenland. You may have read how I love Austrian and German Rieslings. This wine was an example of why. It is spectacular. Ripe green apples on the nose and in the mouth. Beautiful golden color. Weighty in the mouth. Clean and crisp. Like Irish Spring!! My wife, my daughter PeeWee and I tasted it. Even PeeWee's boyfriend had to sniff it. I think PeeWee finished it off. This is 10 year old Austrian Riesling at its finest. Hirtzberger is a top line producer and this is a great effort. Look at the family ferchrissake. Adieu! Adieu! To yu and yu and yu-u! 13.5%. Wish I had some right now. Check out their website. Even if you don't read German. Better yet, let's all go there next Spring.

1999 Ojai VIneyard Chardonnay Clos Pepe $27: This wine was a s#225B60 at this price. Got it at Wades Wines which is a local emporium for domestic wines. He also has some very nice champagnes (single vineyard) but he is primarily renowned for his California selection...which is outstanding and very fairly priced. Igottatellya (dontcha know people who talk like dis?) this wine is 8 years old and there is a ton of oak on it. Color is golden. Nose it subdued. The wine is not balanced but it is not out of whack either. Just oaky. The chard fruit is there. No California tropical flavors. More mineral. Clos Pepe and Cargassachi are two of the best vineyards in Santa Rita Hills and Adam Tolmach is a grand master of central coast wines. So this wine should be in perfect balance, right? Fortunately, Adam is very detailed and forthcoming about his wines and explains why it may not be. His own tasting notes are here. It is worth the effort to peruse Adam's website. I would say he is more candid on his website than in person. Here are his thoughts on winemaking. "I like to think I am the master of my own destiny. I have my vision of the ideal wine, and I know what to do to help insure I get the desired result. You obviously need great vineyards, low yields, and delicate handling of the wine in the winery". See my recent review of his 2001 Clos Pepe Pinot Noir. That wine was delightful. What happened with this 1999 chardonnay? I cannot say...but...unlike the 2001 Pinot Noir this wine does not make the hunt list.

There was a time decades ago when I shopped at Trader Joes for wine.
I still have the bottles of Dunn Howell cabernets with the $14 stickers and oportos for $15 purchased off the shelf at TJs. Today TJs is a top seller of Toobuckupchuck. As a rule I eschew wines sold in supermarkets. And I support my local wine retailer who does an outstanding job bringing in and putting out super values along with all the trophy wines any "collector" soaked in aftershave could ask for.

For the record, the Dunn Howell cabernets age very very well. Along with Philip Togni wines these are two Napa wines that represent far superior value than the current Speculator touts. Given the choice of spending hundreds for a new release Shry-ing Raptor or a perfectly aged Philip Togni 1990 Cabernet or a 1982 Dunn Howell...no brainer. Two are proven.

Like many good Murrkins I shop at Costco.
I am a big buyer (at least in spirit) of all things Kirkland. I even bought a bottle of Kirkland burgundy once (best left unreviewed). Costco established its wine cred by featuring BigTickit wines especially First Growth Bordeaux. However, recently I have found the occasional excellent value of unusual wines I would not expect to see in the Kirkland chain. I tasted two recently and they are reviewed here. So if you love Costco and have a double-executive-wholesale-maxi-rebate-triple-gold membership then you will want to keep your car keys in hand because you will almost certainly be racing out your driveway before you finish reading. And...as always...please...buy Kirkland responsibly.

2004 Brancaia Tre $15: Bought this at Costco. Also saw it on the web at The Wine Club which is a major discounter so somebody dumped a bunch on the market. Goodie for us because this is very nice wine. Blend is 80% Sangiovese, 10% each Merlot and Cabernet. Brancaia is a highly regarded Italian label. This is their low end, I mean introductory, wine. Soft nose would probably have been more interesting in a larger wine glass. No mistaking the taste. Sangio and cab immediately recognizable. Very little tannins.Excellent and probably best drinking right now. Had it with shrimp linguine in red sauce at local Ital dining emporium Giovanni (aka Richie's). Great wine with a terrific meal. Richie sprays the ball off the tee but he hits it down the middle in his kitchen. Finish is ripe, some prunes but not like an Amarone. I am looking for more now. 13.5%.

2005 Domaine de la Motte Premier Cru Chablis Vauligneau $15:
A friend who likes to surprise me pulled this one out at a home dinner he hosted. While he served several very nice wines, this one stood out. Classic Chablis nose of stones, oak, flint. Green flavors of a youthful wine. Lotsa lime flavors. Strong acidic sharpness that was refreshing. Nicely balanced. Nutmeg emerging. This wine got better in the glass over an hour. I was at Costco the next day and bought half a case. Great value. 13%.

White Knight Clarksburg Viognier $10: Now here is an interesting wine. The Large put this one on the table recently and I gotta say it was great to see how this jazz historian/musician has answered the call "no wines over $20". Dammit. Here is the website link to Don Sebastiani and Sons who apparently make the wine. Before I describe my impressions of the wine I have to point out that Santa Clara U is obviously the choice among California winemakers for providing a college education. All three Sebastiani sons attended as did at least one if not two Mondavis (Michael and the girl). Who knew. Viognier is not the next big grape for me (grenache and mourverdre are). Too many California winemakers treat it like chardonnay with the heavy oak and the ripe fruit. Not here. This is lean and balanced. I will bet steel fermented. I did not get the tropical flavors in the online tasting notes. But I did get the "stone fruit". At this price it is worth hunting down if you want to try a different style of viognier. Love the screw top. 13.5%.

So where is Clarksburg? Sacramento Delta. This is good news. Last visit to Napa/Sonoma the wife and I "discovered" a region more like Paso than Napa or Sonoma while technically in Napa. Carneros. Please visit Carneros next time you are traveling to Napa. I am going to bet Clarksburg is very similar in rustic nature and the absence of monster chateaus and $40 tasting rooms. Check out the Clarksburg Wine Growers Association and learn more.

2004 Tablas Creek Cotes de Tablas $13.40: This is my choice for Wine of the Year. I could change my mind since there are still a couple of months left in 2007. However, when it comes to value and quality this wine is very hard to top.The price is for a case. But why not buy the case? You will easily work through it. You do have to be a wine club member to get this price but you know where I stand there. And let me get this out of the way. Thanks for the Tablas Creek Blog post about this blog. OK. That looks like I am just a pimp for TC. I just think this winery is doing a great job on as many fronts as I can imagine. Solar powered energy. Organic methods. By-the-book nursery of original French vinifera for all the great and lesser known (in some cases unknown) varietals from the Rhone region. And this wine? I think I have reviewed it before. Nose is still a bit smoky and seductive. Flavors are pure grenache (64%) and syrah (16%) fruit. Tannins have settled down. Balance is perfect. This wine is still young. 14.8% which is high but it is Paso and I do not taste the alcohol. Website says two more years. Sure. If I have any left after Turkey Day because this is definitely on my Thanksgiving wine list. Works with lasagna...that's right...from Costco!!

Some bewitching and some spooky wines...none that taste like punkin but at least one that belongs in a bag of goodies.

2003 Montefalco Sagrantino ~$40: Deep dark red purple color, thick looking juice, ripe aroma, bacon and chocolate (I know that sounds like chocolate covered bacon which would be awful - nevertheless, the two flavors were present). Then some skunkweed. Taster Richie G who is from Jersey and I (high school South Jersey) both picked it up at the same time. A moment, I know. Hard to imagine how anyone could like this wine from the tantalizing descriptions. But Jackson and Richie G of Giovanni Ristorante liked it just fine. So did I. So where is Perugia? In Umbria which is south of Tuscany and in the middle of Italy. Imagine visiting Umbria instead of Tuscany. Hmm. All the sagrantino you could hope for. Here is where you would be. Not a U20 wine but worth every dollar over the limit. Fenks to the Bruin-loving Mouse for the tout. Live a little! 13.5%.

2004 La Chablisienne ~$17: The other Premier Cru Chablis at Costco (at least this week). The de la Motte reviewed previously was sooo good I had to give this one a whirl. Not up to the other but decent enough. Produced by the largest cooperative of some 300 winemakers in Chablis. Their aim is not to be too fancy pants but rather to make good wines representing the region. They have succeeded. Lighter weight. Yellow straw color. More lean and acidic in flavors. Quince, citrus. Nice enough but I will take the de la Motte.

1996 Frederic Esmonin Ruchottes Chambertin Gran Cru ~$100 today: Eleven year old red
burgundy from a very good year. Cellared at home for 8 years. Took it to local restaurant Toast (sorry - no website) where the fare is improving nicely. Red color. Not browning. Sweet fruit with pointed acidity. Quite nice and femmy. 14%. Held up well throughout meal. We talked about how different Calif pinots are from Burgs...and how we both love Williams Selyem. I was dining with the man who helped me plow through my considerable W/S collection finally cracking the last bottle about 18 months back. I also refer to him as the Scourge of Mastros. He said "Igottatellya I love California pinots but they don't get very good until you shell out $40". He's right. The more expensive ABC and Ojai wines are better. Wes Hagen's best Clos Pepe wines are at the top of his line. This Esmonin is one of a case of Gran and Premier Cru Frederic Esmonin wines I bought from the 95 and 96 vintages. And Igottatellya I have been mildly impressed with every one and let down with more than I expected. I think it's the producer. This is when I started to follow my own advice. If I am buying burgs then I am buying Becky Wasserman. If you care to learn more about the 1996 vintage ten years later in Burgundy here are some very interesting tasting notes made in June 2006 by Ken Wollenberg K&L Burg buyer on the 1996 vintage. There is one note on the Georges Mugneret Ruchottes. Better than the Esmonin Ruchottes. There is an Esmonin Charmes-Chambertin and a Camille Giroud (represented by Wasserman Selections) Chambertin Clos de Beze.
Geography is somewhat of a hobby for the Scourge of Mastros. He read the label which placed Ruchottes Chambertin in the Cotes d'Or but that is all of Burgundy. The Ruchottes vineyard is in the Cote de Nuits which is one of the two principal regions in Burgundy, aka Cotes d'Or. The map above shows the Cote de Nuits. The map below shows the location of the Ruchottes vineyard (#6) in the Chambertin group of Gran and Premier Cru vineyards. Here is a fun site (a wine dictionary!) where you can learn some quick info including how to pronounce roo-show.

Like many middle-aged empty-nesters we faced a typical Saturday night choice: watch another boring division series baseball game or enjoy a dinner prepared by Jackie d'Occitan with wines selected by her shadowy husband Michael du Nawlins. Not even close.

Michael was decanting the 1983 Grahams Port (definitely not U20) when wife and I arrived well ahead of the other guests (the Scourge of Mastros and his wife Letty). Naturally I poured a small taste of the Grahams immediately seeking a reference point when I hit this again much later. Spectacular. Rich nuttiness. Cherry and mentholatum not unlike cough syrup. Loooonnnnngggg finish. Next taste in three hours with cigars. Michael bought this from his local wine retailer, Liquid Wine & Spirtis in Chatsworth CA. Excellent wine store where one can always find something unexpected, unusual and often spectacular. Here are some notes from a tasting of the 1983 oporto vintage. Very nice!

Cheese, olives and crackers was accompanied by the 2005 Cargasacchi Pinot Noir (also not U20). Mike pours it blind. Oh my goodness. Exotic spice in the nose. Not cab. Not pinot. Not syrah. What is it? Jackie S says allspice aromas. First taste reminds me of fruit cakes at Christmas. Cinnamon, gluwein, lipstick. Wildly exotic wine from Peter Cargasacchi a wildy exotic winemaker from Santa Rita Hills. Tannins emerge after 20 minutes. This will go awhile. I believe Michael bought this on subscription from Caragsacchi through Peter's Point Concepcion Point Concepcion wine label. For me this was the most remarkable and memorable wine of the evening. Truly exotic.

Dinner time. Michael serves the NV Veuve Clicquot. $34 at Costco. The orange label. Toasty citric. A bit harsh. Orange fruit flavors. Michael suggests tangerine. OK. Goes nicely with Jackie's platter of duck fois gras, peppercorn pork pate, beets, and carrot shavers.

Jackie serves poached salmon and spinach gratin for the main course. It is perfectly prepared. Delicate. Nice to not get beef again. Love that. Thank you M&J. Michael serves the 2005 Domaine de la Motte Premier Cru Chablis Vauligneau. This is covered in a preceding report. Costco purchase and the hands-down U20 value for this evening and many others to come.

Jackie serves creme brulee' for dessert. Since I am waxing on Rieslings Michael pulls another surprise wine out. I have had it before but do not recognize it until I spot the bottle lurking behind him. The nose is rich and oily riesling. Pomegranate, grapefruit, very ripe. Oops. That gives it away. The nose is too ripe for the color. It is the 2004 Rideau Riesling from Santa Ynez. The flavors of peppermint and pear are nice but they do not fulfill the promise of the aromas. He has dropped his subscription even though they do have a new winemaker. The pedigree is there so they could and should get better. Worth a re-visit.

Michael decides if I will not drink the riesling then he will put the 2005 Inniskillin Cabernet Franc in front of me. I am just at my limit for more rich food so I pass on the dessert and the riesling (given teh choice it would be Jackie's dessert). But I do taste the Inniskillin.This is a wine I would never buy simply because it is too widely marketed, too corporate (I am such a snob about being snobby). I figure if I see it in an airport duty free store... So I must at least try it. I am surprised and pleased with the low level alcohol at 10.5%. This is rhubarb pie in a glass. Strawberries, chambord, strawberry jam. Everyone plays along thinking of flavors. This is the hardest thing for shy wine drinkers to do. But it so simple if you just un-dam your memory pool. This is nice wine. Costco? I do not ask. But if the Kirklanders offer it a really great price...it was awfully good.

The evening closes upstairs with cigars on the patio with the fireplace going - I know, a dream home and it is. We return to the 1983 Grahams. It is still delicious and worth another small glass.

Fall approaches and the holidays are a'coming.

With a double bar/t mitzvah in Palo Alto (Papa Ricolini vogues Tevya at reception) we saw the opportunity to extend a few days and hit Napa as long as we were so near. A trip to Napa is always mixed for me...at least at the outset. Visiting with good friends is a plus. But given the pure wine-country choice I would prefer to visit almost anywhere else like Paso Robles or even better Walla Walla.

Napa is silly. Take the tasting rooms...please. [apologetic link to Henny Youngman insult machine] In Napa they have tasting galleries. U20 wines? Not in Napa no way no how. It costs at least $20 just to taste wines in the galleries. The Del Dotto Gallery demands $40 and they keep the glass. And they are hardly the exception. If you plan on tasting at Del Dotto, Stags Leap and Opus in the same day bring a couple hundies...for the privilege of sipping and spitting in a bucket. The way I get around the over-the-top silliness of Napa is to make sure I visit Carneros first. Which means a visit with McKenzie-Mueller.

Fall paints brilliant colors which are wonderful to look at in the wine country light. I did not get a single picture but I do keep the memories of blazing orange, scarlet and brown vineyards.

Karen McKenzie greeted us and we got right to tasting. All prices reflect M-M Wine Club 25% discount. She poured wine on their tasting table...in the same warehouse (OK, very large garage) where they make and store the wine. Bought every wine reviewed.

2006 McKenzie-Mueller Sauvignon Blanc ~$18: She said this wine came from vines that they had tried to convert ("t-budded") to red varietals. Some the vines produced SB anyway! So they bottled a very small amount of very fresh, minerally and not at all grassy SB. Like a Sancerre.

2005 McKenzie-Mueller Clan Rose ~$14: 63% cab franc makes for a brawny pinky.

2004 McKenzie-Mueller Pinot Noir $~$26: Deep almost caramel nose. Deep red robe. Fruit forward, elegant. The thing about Bob's pinot is that you would not mistake it for Sonoma, Napa or Santa Rita. He gets the Carneros smoke and slightly briny fruit far better than other Carneros producers. Outstanding. Biggest purchase.

2002 McKenzie-Mueller Merlot ~$26: Bob makes the best and the best value merlot. Five years in bottle and completely fresh. Another deep wine with seductive aromas of blackest cherry. Spectacular.

2003 McKenzie-Mueller Cabernet Franc ~$26: Of the three reds we bought this was the least spectacular. Which is like saying Lana Turner was not quite Marilyn Monroe. Or James Coburn was not quite Clint Eastwood. More narrow flavor profile and still kicking it good. We purchased.

The McKenzie-Mueller presentation never disappoints. I need more of these wines!

On the way to Napa we spent an overnight in The City. I will not bore you with my appraisal of all the ways SF is so much cooler than LA. The restaurants with their intelligent wine lists is one reason. Here is what we tasted at SPQR, the new A16 installment in Pacific Heights on Fillmore. You can order a 3 ounce taste, a 6 ounce glass or a 375 ml carafe of any of the 32 wines on the list. Is there one LA restaurant that has even considered this policy? Lou (Dottore' suggestion) may be the closest LA has to this enlightened of a wine policy. I am showing the price on the wine list which you have to figure is a 100% markup from what you might pay retail.

First the white wines...

2004 Emmanuele Scammarca 'Murgo' Nerello Mascalese Brut, Sicilia $49: Toasty nose. Tiny bead. Dry flavor, pinot fruit, good acid and citric flavors in balance. Terrific.

2006 Ferrando 'La Torrazza' Erbaluce di Caluso, Piemonte $32: Neal Rosenthal selection. Creamy, oak on nose and in flavors. Vanilla and mineral going on. Find it, buy it. Has to be excellent value.

2006 Scagliola 'Casot dan Vian ' Chardonnay, Piemonte $37: Pale color. Sweet and salty flavors. Stick to Arneis.

2005 Di Giovanna 'G&K" Grillo, Sicilia $40: Resembles sauvignon blanc con grass.

And two reds...

2006 Castello di Luzzano 'Carlino Bonardo, Oltrepo' Pavese, Lombardia $36: Perfumed fruity nose. Flavor is cooked fruit like in a pie. A bit green. OK, not great.

2004 Di Giovanna Nero d'Avola, Sicila $34: Earthy nose, almost veggie, burnt charcoal-like. Sounds awful huh? Tasted great! Perfect BBQ wine. Even has BBQ tastes, rich and smoky. I would hunt this one down.

SPQR was a great stop. Dropped in at the Elite Cafe up the street before heading to Firefly in Noe Valley for a quiet dinner. We'll dine at Elite next time up.

Sunday night we dined at Uva in Napa. Great local spot. Food was excellent. Service unpretentious. Carlos brought wines.

1999 Clarendon Hills Shiraz Moritz Vineyard ~$128 online: This is the first Aussie shiraz I have actually enjoyed. Excellent balance, lush fruit. Ready to drink. Like a Carneros merlot crossed with Russian River pinot. Was worth the wait. Hmm. Could there be others this good?

2003 Donatella Cinelli Colombini Cenerentola Orcia ~$50: Tuscan blend of 65% Sangiovese and 35% Foglia Tonda (a once-cast-aside grape she is resurrecting) tastes more like Sicilian style than Tuscan. And no cab so it tastes nothing like a super Tuscan. Or her highly regarded Brunello. Have had this before also from Litos' cellar. Tannic, like-able, good cherry flavor. But tannic. Keeper. Stylized label represents...Italian woman with 3 names? Cerentola translates to Cinderella. Her press suggests she is kinda cool.

Monday we awakened to a gorgeous Napa day. By this time Carlitos and Alice are in tow. There is no sense getting in the way of the irresistible force that is Carlos. We headed directly to Sterling Winery. I know what you are thinking...Sterling? The winery with the tram ride? I will tell you we spent three hours there being served by Sigrid in the VIP Room tasting the best wines Sterling has to offer. And they were excellent. Among the big Napa/Sonoma producers - Mondavi, Beringer, Simi, Kendall-Jackson, BV - I favor Sterling. Now that Sterling is owned by Diageo they no longer produce a Winery Lake chardonnay. Acacia (another Diageo property) produces the Winery Lake since Acacia is the "single vineyard" property in the minds of Diageo marketers. Having just finished reading the Mondavi book (read review here) I understand the importance of positioning product up and down the price ladder. And Acacia in a word? Unimpressive.

But Sterling...and Sigrid...what a great afternoon. Retail prices at the winery listed. Enterprising folks (such as Carlitos) can do better.

1998 Sterling Cabernet Reserve $100: Wow. And I am not a cab fan. And 1998 is an "off vintage" for Napa. Extended rains in Spring delayed bud break all over the valley. But this wine was special. Tobacco, cedar in nose and flavors. Velvet smooth, all integrated, black cherry fruit. Not listed for sale.

2001 Sterling Reserve Merlot $75: Not listed. Vanilla flavors. Sweet. Too much for my taste.

2004 Sterling Three Palms Merlot $65: Tannic, chocolate/coca flavors. Doughy nose. Dark red color. Needs time. 14.2%

2001 Sterling Three Palms Merlot $60: Spicy, mint nose. Lusty wine, mocha flavors, beautiful. 13.5%. Winnah. Pay the front line! A great contrast to the McKenzie-Mueller style. Not listed for sale.

2004 Sterling Vineyards Reserve $45: Bordeaux blend sourced throughout Napa Valley (i.e., Diageo properties). Earthy, cab/merlot/petit verdot. Everything I find boring in Napa cabs.

2001 Sterling Red Carpet Reserve $100: Not listed for sale. Bordeaux blend bottled for the Academy's Oscar party. Nose is integrated. Balanced flavors, shoe polish flavors I associate with Bordeaux blends that are mostly cab and merlot. The pitch is make your friends who watch the Oscars with you feel special. I would rather watch Dog the Bounty Hunter than the Oscar show. Actually I would rather watch Beth. Now she is in perfect balance.

2003 Sterling Diamond Mountain Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon $65: No sooner do I open my big mouth about boring cabs then I fall in love with this fabulous wine. Mint nose, intense mountain fruit, lush package all round. This wine would be tempting at full retail. At the price we paid it is a very good buy. 13.5%

Diageo seems to have improved things at Sterling. The marketers have not run roughshod over the winemakers. There are only a few mega-players like Diageo and, together, they own an important proportion of the valley. But don't ask me. Ask the staff who all seem very happy and were exceptionally helpful and courteous. Sterling Winery - worth the visit.

And then there were three more wines...

Monday night we dined at Redd in Yountville. This is high-ticket fancy-pants joint. Even though it is major frous-frous I must compliment the staff on their top-of-the-line service. We were a difficult party arriving 30 minutes early and asking to be seated if something opened up. It did. They offered but we were not quite ready. When we did get to our table we were unhappy with it so back to the bar we went. They set us up in a better location in a few minutes. Unashamed, we lobbied hard to open a bottle we had brought that was also on their list. A no-no. However, the maitre'd Adam graciously assented.

The Redd decor is elegantly spare with a backlit mirror along the rear wall. Even our waiter Misty was spare. I wish I had her photo. Thin, pale. The wait staff uniform is black shirt, pants and tie. A black and white houndstooth full length apron provides contrast. Misty - who was exceptionally competent - completed the look with jet black hair, pale pale skin, round black earrings and no lipstick. How perfect is that? Prices not posted since they are ridiculously over-the-top.

1999 Roederer Cristal: We actually had this at the hotel before heading out. Golden color. Small bead. Lemon flavors. Not toasty at all. Clean and rich.

2004 Opus One: I think Opus is better since going on its own sans Mondavi. The 04 is round, balanced with lots of merlot. That is a good idea. The website is a total pain.

2000 Joseph Phelps Insignia: Insignia has always been an idiosyncratic wine. Mesmerizing; like watching "a snail crawl across a razor's edge". I go back to 1985 with it. Minty to a fault. Showing characteristic mint flavor. Narrow band of flavors. angular. Intense and focused. This 7 year old wine is quite muscular. Think Tommy "Hit Man" Hearns. It will knock you out.

Until next time.

Sea glass is ocean borne detritus. Pieces of broken bottles wash onto beaches after years (decades?) tumbling around on the ocean floor. Low tide is the time to look. Pieces wash up everywhere. Many LA beaches are fine targets. We have so much trash and so many boaters. Some artists and craftspeople make sea glass jewelry. Seaside towns usually have a sea glass jeweler. When I visit Paso I like to stay in Cambria for this reason. The idea of sea glass is probably cooler than the stuff itself. Something found that was not even lost but tossed or kicked away can be romantic. Something without any value, even a pollutant, that can be valued if convention is set aside, can at least inspire curiosity.

Here are three wines that share some of these qualities. A couple are waiting to be found. At least one has been lost to what is conventional. I would be surprised (even disappointed) if any was rated above 90 points.

2006 Bugey Maison Angelot Gamay $9: A Charles Neal selection. This is the Boogie wine. From the cheap plastic "foil cap" to the half-size plastic cork, this wine is everything great about the importer and the kind of wine every wine drinker should put in the rotation. Call it "plain folk wine", people's wine" or "farmer's wine". It is wine the way wine was made before wine became a lifestyle. First taste is off-putting the wine is so rustic. Where is the polish of oak and soft malolactic? Fresh cherry and tomato (but not cherry tomato) flavors. Naive, fresh but not youthful. The second glass shows what is going on here. Nothing fancy. Just delicious. I have to get that Best of Wine Importers Part 2 post up.

2002 Pipestone Rhone Style Red $U20: There is no confusing what Jeff Pipestone is trying to do here; 40% syrah, 30% grenache noir, and 30% mourverdre. This is his Rhone blend. Tastes pretty good. Rich fruit flavors. "Co-fermented", now isn't that interesting! Tastes more fresh than 5 years old. Dark cherry fruit. Not noticeably tannic. Nice effort. This is the American Pastoral because the Pipestone team (Jeff and Florence) live in the most idyllic setting on the Paso Westside. If you have a chance you should visit.

2002 Boyer-Martenot Mersault "Le Pre de Manche" $25: Barrel-selected by North Berkeley Imports. Citrus, orange-like, even peachy flavors. Just enough oak to make it interesting. Very good acid spine. Very nice wine. North Berkeley, like Kermit Lynch, has a wonderful selection of their own blends form Burgundy producers who, I guess, find the practice worthwhile. Hard to imagine Rolls Royce collaborating with a team of Russian engineers who want to produce their own RR vehicle.

2002 Etude Carneros Pinot Noir $40 (at the right online store):
How good was this wine? Had it with a friend over dinner. He likes wine well enough to know what he likes but not enough to know what he is drinking. All wine-o-files have pals fitting this profile. He loved it from the first sniff to the last drop. This is the latest event in my developing pursuit to become more familiar with Carneros pinots. Not sure how this got in my cellar so I guess I am lucky it was there. This bottle will still take age. Smoky slightly briny character. Very nicely balanced. Great pinot fruit more cherry than otherwsie but the smoke - in balance- was strongest note for me. Medium weight. Lovely. Etude has an especially elegant label that is reminiscent of Leroy.

The tBoW tasting team returned to Carneros for the post-Thanksgiving-day wine sojourn. It's a family tradition, y'know. This year it was me, the missus and Aunt Betsy with the naughty clogs. The regional choice was Livermore or Carneros. Much as I would like to visit another California wine region...with McKenzie-Mueller (M-M) beckoning the choice was easier than a Trojan win over the Bruins.

The wines reviewed below were purchased in Berkeley at North Berkeley Wines (NBW), Kermit Lynch or in Carneros. North Berkeley Wine offers a strong selection of Verget wines. Verget is a negociant who buys juice and produces only white Burgundy wines. Quality is high and pricing is very fair. Classic NBW selection. If I am going to visit the Bay Area then I am going to visit Kermit and NB wine merchants. They are covered plenty on this blog as they are in this post. However, I am not going to review M-M since I did a few weeks past. I will say once more that Bob and Karen M-M are expert hosts, and Bob makes absolutely wonderful wines. Do not overlook Carneros next time in Napa. We tasted on Wednesday before Thanksgiving Day, T-Day, and the day after.

Another family tradition is making sure everyone at the turrkey table learns how to taste and enjoy wine. So the tasting can become a descriptive free-for-all which is reflected in some of the notes.

The good news is every wine (except the Adastra) is a U20.

2004 Verget Saint Bris $U20: Recommended by John at NBW. Sauvignon blanc from Burgundy! On the nose we get oak and green apple. On the tongue and in the mouth sour kiwi lime and lemon. Some green bean and cucumber. You taste the coolness. On the finish I thought of the tennis-ball sized rough skinned crab apples I ate as a kid. Here is a link to a wine/travel blog that covers St Bris. Recommended surfing.

2004 Verget Bourgogne "Grand Elevage" $U20: Green gold color. Sold as "de-classified Mersault" which is always a good pitch when dealing with the Duke and Dauphin. We never ask the obvious question - why was it de-classified? Is the war over? Did somebody important die? Was a handful of radical vintners granted amnesty? While we pondered these question we waited for the wine to open up. As might be expected from a young premium white burg this took hours. The first sniff and taste was oaky, soapy, tannic, even musty. Aunty B mentioned cow pie and she would know (Michigander farm girl). A couple hours later when the tasters were also a bit more friendly they suggested sandalwood, currant berry blossom and scented candle. 13%. NBW

2003 Domaine Vacheron Sancerre $U20: Another sauvignon blanc. Green gold color (even though it has enough years to turn yellow). Nose is lime, mineral, acid, bright. Flavors are sweet and fruity apple. Honeysuckle and hydrangia. Flavors are green, earthy, oak. Distinctive taste with waxy cheese and peach stone.

2004 Vincent Dureil-Janthial Bourgogne Passetoutgrains $U20: Are you ready for a red gamay pinot noir blend? Dave Corey of Core Wines (a Santa Barbara/Paso Rhone guy) always got a chuckle from me when he described pinot as a nice blending grape. Well, Mr. Corey must have known that Passetoutgrains is a traditional field blend in Burgundy of the two grapes. So now we know it too. Raspberry flambe' and smoky chocolate on the nose. The gamay is quite noticeable. Liked it plenty. My choice with the bird. NBW.

2005 Chateau du Trignon Cotes du Rhone $U20: This was excellent red village Rhone. Color is purple. Nose is sweet, doughy, dusty, with pepper. Tannic, strawberry-kiwi jam. The strawberry-kiwi is there in teh mouth. Medium weight, slight tannins. Grenache fruit prevails. Turns to granny apple cider after a couple hours. Bold effort and terrific wine. 14%. Kermit.

Here is an article that describes this particular wine as well as asks the question why are there not more wines like this one made in California. Good question.

After visiting at M-M we walked across the street and said hello to the vineyard manager at Adastra. A retired physician and family run this tiny 1500 case operation in wine country. Blippin hot winemaker Pam Starr is the highly touted "soil translator" (read her October 07 interview here). We tasted five wines and purchased two. The style is high-tone rustic. Well-made wines that are balanced but show minimum handling. If you can visit you should. I have posted a couple of photos FYI.

Adastra 2006 Syrah $56: Syrah production in Carneros is small so we were quite interested in tasting this one. This is the winery price, of course, which is 100% retail. But at ~150 cases where would one find it anyway? Very fruity reminiscent of Santa Rita Hills with more lean fruit. Cold weather fruit. Not plump. 16% alcohol! When I mentioned our host said we would not have known without looking. He was right. 100 cases.

2005 Pinot Reserve Proximus $36: Ripe style, rustic, not melded. Tannins floating like particles. Just a visual, not actually. All good components. 200 cases. 14.5%.

The Adastra wines need to lay down awhile. These are the kinds of bottles I pull from the cellar in five years. I know I will be pleasantly surprised recalling the 40 minutes memorably spent there. And I bet I will say this is pretty good.

A bonus wine...I discovered this in my cellar and have been opening and enjoying it the past month.

2002 Beckmen Cuvee le Bec ~$14: Current release is the 2005. The blend is classic Rhone style. In this vintage it is almost half Grenache, one quarter Mourverdre and one-fifth Syrah and 10% Counoise. The 2005 blend is 52% Grenache, 34% Syrah, 8% Mourvedre, and 5% Counoise. I prefer Grenache and Mourverdre to Syrah so the blend suits me fine. I find California syrah to be ripe and fruity. Domestic grenache seems more restrained and earthy without sacrificing fruit. Mourverdre provides the bold meat flavors I like in Rhone wines. This blend after 5 years in the bottle and three in my cellar is quite presentable. Soft, tannins have blended in. More fruit than pepper and earth. The wine is perfect for any evening and almost any meal. By the way, this blend is featured in that SF Chronicle article (above) as proof that a good tasting well-priced Rhone blend can be made in California.

tBoW webmeister Dr. D posts these thoughts on a recent research publication that has received a bit of press. Several reviews follow that further investigate these findings.

"Perceived added value" is a term used in marketing that describes how a consumer might look at oh, say a bottle of shampoo with two free ounces for the same price as the smaller sized bottle.

You get more for the same price, thus there is the perception of added value or better bang for your dirty-hair buck. In this case, the perception of added value is actually true, you get two more ounces of product for free. However in many product categories, the added value is only perception, nothing tangible. When it comes to the price of wine, it is often about perception, not a tangible value. This is the essential reason for our "No Wine Over $20" call to arms.

A recent study performed by the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the California Institute of Technology, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows how the perception of wine enjoyment actually arises from a different part of the brain than where tastes are registered.

In this study, participants were given two wines to sample. One was a high priced wine and the other was a low priced wine. At least that was what the participants were told. In reality, the two beverages were identical. It's kind of like a reverse placebo. Instead of giving two different pills that masquerade as the same medicine, we have two identical wines that are being presented as different vintages. Brilliant.

As any marketer could predict, the perception of the more expensive wine received higher marks for "enjoyment" than the cheaper wine. This is a classic example of "perceived added value" and one reason you can find two products in a grocery store that list identical ingredients (with presumably identical quality) but have two very different prices that no doubt resonates with their packaging. Perceptions are hugely important in how we make our purchase choices.

To put this more simply, the default setting in our brains is that if something is more expensive, it must be better. Obviously, this is a glitch in the human psyche that is easily exploited by marketers.

Interestingly, the study also tracked which part of the brain was effected by the expensive wine. Expectations of quality triggered activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, the part of the brain that registers pleasure. This happens even though the part of our brain that interprets taste is not affected. Amazing, but not surprising.

I think that what we need is a pill to stimulate that part of the brain that registers pleasure. The only problem is that it would have to be very expensive .

-Dr. Dionysus.

...if you read this blog then your palate is probably inverted...in other words you value quality in fairly priced wines and find most high-priced bottles simply high-priced...so here are the relevant wine reviews...and a couple ideas about operationalizing the quality/price or VALUE ratio

2006 Jest White $0.99: Could this be the ultimate perceived wine value? At a recent party I attended I found myself sitting next to a fellow wine geek named Cam. We talked some wine poop and he poured me the wine he brought. WhadoIthink? Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, what else? Colombard he suggested. Nose is nice enough. Fruity and a little dry. Decent acid. He tells me the story. He bought it months ago for $10 at The Wine House (West LA emporium), liked it, but decided once was enough. Then he saw it at the 99 Cent Store for $11.88 a case. "Would you buy it for 99 cents"? No. I wouldn't. I would rather pay $15 for the Robert Chadderdon Selection below. Here is what I found about Jest White on the Chowhound website.

"The Jest White site says it is a blend of Viognier, Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Symphony, Pinot Gris, Riesling, Muscat and Gewurztraminer but as the site says ...Jest White is neither too dry nor too sweet. Jest as it is neither too heavy nor too light, nope, Jest White is Jest right. It went well with this cream cheese/fig appetizer I put together. Listen, I have NO wine creds other than I just can't stand cheap white wine. I will drink boxed red ... there is very little red I won't drink, but white has to be drinkable. I thought this was more than just drinkable and is a worthy match for any $10 white out there."

2004 Chateau du Sueil Graves Blanc $15: This Robert Chadderdon Selection represents what I would call great value. I know I am wrong in the eyes of others. But they shop at TJs (I covered the decline of Trader Joes in my October 25 07 entry). In fact Cam pointed me to the Quaffability blog where TJ wines are reviewed saving lots of wasted $$ for folks who buy wine there (unless they stick to twoupchuck). I covered this in an earlier post on how Costco has replaced Trade Joes as the go-to value wine retailer for the masses (snobby eh?). When I praise Costco I do so with tongue in cheek. One can buy good wines at very good value in Costco. They are just not interesting wines. This Sauvignon Blanc is perfect in many ways. It is balanced and has bright acid (lights up the mouth). Flavors are lemon peel, sour orange. Alcohol is 12.5%. I do not hesitate to push the Lincoln and Grant over at the cash register. Is this 15 times better? It is probably 50 times better.

One idea for measuring VALUE...

Quaffability is a wine review website that uses a sensible wine scoring system. The ubiquitous 100 point system is moronic with no real scale properties. If you never have a score less than 85 then you really have a 15 point scale. And if nobody cares about wine rated below 90 then the scale is really only 10 points. This is Dr. D's point and one of the long grieved problems with Wine Spectator, Parker and other touts using the 100 point scale. Think about it. Explain the difference between 92 and 93 points. Isn't this all about perception? It looks stupid to rate wine as 6 or 7 on a 10 point scale. Imagine a 1 score. Ratings in the 90s are perceived as more desirable.

John G is the Quaffability taster and I have to guess the man behind the MUCH MORE SENSIBLE rating system (let's call it the Qscore). Here is how JG 'splains it.

"The ratings are on a percentage of value scale tuned to reflect the Cost-Price-Ratio of the wines, with 100% as the minimum acceptable score. So a $6.00 wine that tastes like a $6.00 wine, earns a 100%, while a $6.00 wine that tastes like a $12.00 wine gets a 200%."

Cost-Price-Ratio scale? I would describe this as the Cost-Value-Ratio or the Price-Value-Ratio or even the Taste-Cost-Ratio. The $0.99 Jest White wine tastes like a $5 wine to me so its Qscore is 500%. Now we see the problem with this scale. It is not well suited for really really cheap wines. A $5 wine is already cheap. But a $1 wine is ridiculously cheap!! The $$ difference is small enough to be irrelevant. In this case, the perception of a 500% value grossly exceeds the quality value.

The white Graves costs $15. It tastes to me like a $25 wine. Its Qscore would be 167%.

One more wine...

1997 George Breuer Rudesheim Schlossberg: This wine was dumb for a long time. It started to come around in the past year. This is a legendary winery. Riesling is my favorite wine in the world. They age wonderfully. And nothing else tastes like Riesling from Germany. While I favor Mosel wines I have tasted wines from other regions in Germany such as Nahe and Rheingau that are delightful. This 10 year old Reisling is yellowing although there is still a touch of green present. The nose has petrol (which is characteristic of Riesling although with great Mosels it seems to disappear) and baked bread. The flavors are exotic. Lime, soda crackers, arugula (bitterness) and a creaminess that is fighting to be released. It is almost gaseous. Who left the stove on?!?! I love it. Small production of 300+ cases. Classic.

And the Qscore? I like to drink young Rieslings but I love to drink properly aged Rieslings. I prefer Ausleses. I really do not have a taste any more for the super sweet BAs and outrageously sweet TBAs. I would love to have my 1983 selections back. I am sure they still defy gravity (like the photo above of Berg Schlossberg vineyards hanging over the Rhine) and to me might as well be priceless.

Ed.: Mouse is a serious wine maven. He reports in from a recent run through Manhattan where he found some great and not so great white wines that in turn prompted several thoughts on white wines in general.

First, let's just get this out of the way. Burgundy represents the zenith of white wine. Riesling in its various forms may have a few delegates, but they would represent John Edwards in a summer convention. And maybe one renegade Viognier supporter. But the white burgs would win by a voice of affirmation. Deafening. Perhaps later we can go into Cote de Beaune in more detail, but for now, let's move on to the wines.

[ed. un moment my leetle rodent! Here is an excellent link to the winedoctor where he discusses Burgundy and Chablis!!]. . .Furthermore, I have posted a redundant map of France's wine regions in case anyone wonders where Burgundy sits.]

2000 Vincent Prunier Premier Cru St Aubin $15: Recently my man Mike at New England Beverage Mart in Orange, CT, alerted me to a $15 St. Aubin, an 2000 premier cru from La Chateniere from Vincent Prunier. Never had the vineyard, never heard of the producer. But for $15? A case later, it remains a deal of deals. All of the burg essentials are there - oatmeal, hazelnut, ripe pear and length, length, length. A close-out, of course, and comparable to ANY $40 bottle one would find. Two Strong Mice.

2006 Stadlmann Zierfandler $15: Now to the germanics. First, the $15 liquid glue from an Austrian producer named Stadlmann. Purchased in Manhattan at a lovely little store called Nancy's Wines on Columbus Ave. They specialize in wines others don't sell. Four German spatburgunders (pinot noir), for example. They recommended a BYOB Chinese restaurant and a varietal called zierfandler that was news to me. It should have stayed that way. For a Frederick Wildman import, coupled with Nancy's enthusiasm, I expected more. The food was spicy and we still didn't finish the bottle. This experience convinced me that Austria's brilliance rests on its Riesling. You can have the dry pepper Gruner.

2002 Weingut Prinz von Hessen Johannisberger Klaus Riesling Kabinett $8: But, ah, to the fairytale Rheingau to cap off this discussion. An $8 close-out from Weingut Prinz von Hessen: 2002 Johannisberger Klaus Riesling Kabinett. Well, tasted more like an auslese to me. Rich, minerally, sweet candied apples and a lovely viscous streak in the glass. Bottle for bottle, does anyone producer more consistently good wine than the peace loving 21st century Germans? 1.5 mice [ed. This winery is a member of Der Grosse Ring, the long-standing if somewhat mysterious mark of excellence in German wines]

Once I began reading about the Uco valley (Internet trip planning) I knew I had to visit. [ed. one of many spectacular views in the valley, this from Bodega Salentien] It just sounded too incredible: the region where the big money was taking up roost; bodegas spread even more few and far between than Maipu or Lujan du Cuyo, highest altitude vineyards in Mendoza province, and proximity to the second largest peak, Tupungato at over19,000 feet, in the Andes. Knowing there would be a major peak that I could actually see with the naked eye while touring vineyards was important because it meant I could easily torpedo any move to take a day-long bus ride (10 hours) to Aconcagua, the tallest Andean peak that can only be seen after a long bus ride up the mountain and which is a popular tourist activity when at a loss for what to do next in Mendoza. When my team was at a loss for what to do next in Mendoza we asked Posada de Rosas hostess Ellen and she suggested we have lunch in the Parque San Martin where tourists seldom ventured. As usual she was perfectly correct.

Before we review the day in Valle de Uco, I want to finish the second half of the previous day in Maipu and Lujan de Cuyo. After touring Bodegas Tempus Alba and Achaval Ferrer we were driven to the Carlos Pulenta compound in Lujan de Cuyo where we were set to have lunch at the Mendoza's finest restaurant La Bourgogne followed by a bodega tour. One can be easily fooled by a first look at the Pulenta facility. It presents as a familiar Latino rectangular compound centered around an open courtyard. There is a posada with a few rooms above the entrance and the restaurant is at the other end of the central pathway. the bodega? All underground. And it is huge.

The bodega tour was efficient. We saw the fermentation tanks and long open storage rooms. Unlike any other winery I have seen, the bottles are stored for aging individually in piles along the walls. This requires multiple opportunities to break them form the excessive handling, from the bottling line, to the storage area, back to the bottling line for labeling, and then into the shipping cases. The most interesting part of the tour was the tasting room (pictured here). I was not interested in tasting any Pulenta wines but I was very interested in examining the wall of Lujan dirt that comprised the room's longest wall.

The lunch is worth mentioning. The food was very good but the service, as noted by tasting team member PeeWee, was "indifferent". We ordered the 2004 Vistalba Corte B from the wine list ($31 US) which was anything but indifferent. Vistalba is one of many Pulenta's lines. Corte is the Argentine word for a blend. There is also a Corte A and C. Corte B blends 57% Malbec, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 13% Bonnarda. Blueberry flavors. Feel was luscious. Liked it mucho [ed. even with all the cab?] Made a note to buy it in LA. Price is $25. Corte A blends Malbec and Cab in more equal amounts, but the Corte C is the one I have to try. It is 85% Malbec and 15% Merlot which, in my view, is the better blend.

and now...at long last...the Valle de Uco...

Riding to the valley is kind of like driving from LA up the backside of the California Sierras to Mammoth Mountain, except the ride is much shorter. We head south form Mendoza on Highway 42 which is like Route 66 in that it traverses the country at its longest points, north to south. Rustic, low scrub chapparal, two lane blacktop. You know you are in the boonies when the Difunte Correa and Gauchito Gil shrines start showing up alongside the road. Here is another website about Difunte Correa, the "unofficial" national saint who, along with Gil, is not recognized as divine by the Catholic Church. We crested a long hill and there was the valley with its spectacular mountains that command your eyes to continually stare...until we hit the first bodega

Salentein is the Pulenta compound in spades. It is a posada, an art gallery and a bodega in three separate buildings each occupying its own acre in a triangle arrangement. The photo above shows the walk form the gallery to the winery. I wanted to stay here but could not arrange it. The bodega, like Pulenta, is underground, however, you could fit about six Pulenta facilities into this one. If you have ever visited the Medici Tombs you have an idea of the scale and spectacle. I had to ask the guide who was buried here. The place is stupefyingly stupendous.

The place is almost overwhelming with its multiple underground levels. Art is not just in the gallery but everywhere...inside and outside This piece is adjacent to the elevator door between hose storage and the "temple" storage room. Eventually - and we were in no rush - we arrived at the tasting room. Here is what they poured us.

2006 Salentein Chardonnay $17: High acid on the nose. Tastes like chardonnay with higher acid than I expect. No tropical flavors. 6 months oak. 14%

2003 Salentein Merlot$15: Black olive on the nose. Smoky. Not impressive. 14.5%

2004 Salentein Pinot Noir $17: Smoke on the nose. Meaty fruit like a thick fleshy plum. Some barnyard, lightweight. Too much alcohol. Surprising the fruit is so nice. 15.5%

Salentein's premium line is Primus, not tasted. I have found that Salentein wines are not easy to locate, at least in LA. This is a shame because they are very good value and decent wines. They offer a wide range of varietals, as well.

Bodega Andeluna is the creation of Ward Lay, of Frito-Lay. That is correct. The same man who brought the world cheet-ohs owns a world class winery in Valle de Uco. We had a fabulous experience here. This was our lunch stop and, unlike the other "premium" dining spot, this was the top stop for the entire trip.

We never did the bodega tour because lunching with Chef Pablo cooking and serving us was too much to hurry through. Because we took the premium tasting meal we did taste some really nice wines...and ate some truly special f