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

Pardon my indulgence here, as we add another zero to Wines Under $20. But man, what a night . . . John Caplan, owner of Grapes Wine in Norwalk, CT., ushered in my 50th birthday with an assortment of wine that defied generosity. He's got a great palate, his store gets wines that others don't, and here we go!

Wine One!
2001 Frederick Magnien Charmes-Chambertin~$150: Actually, this was my sole contribution to the evening. An average vintage grand cru from an above average producer. This was earthy yet soft, with unleashed cherries running from barn to barn. This came from a ridiculous case discount some years back from North Berkeley Wines. [ed. I am dropping all wine clubs - except Tablas Creek - and joining NBW's Club Beaune. Serious.]. There are better burgs, but this showed very well. A fine way to start the proceedings. Two Mice.

Wine Two!!
1998 E. Pira Barolo Cannubi: This is where things started to get silly, in a hurry. In the traditional style, this nebbiolo showed its perfume and elegance in a way that shows Robert Parker is often nuts. One, and I'll argue this til the cows come in, Barolo is NOT the "road tar, stern, leather, tobacco ... massive" wine that RP claims. Maybe the crappy ones, but not this violet-trimmed, spicy pecan pie, eurphoric glass of sap from some exotic tree that hasn't been discovered in a Brazilian forest. It blew me away, but it was not BIG. It was the high school girl that no one noticed until the 10th year reunion. And, RP gives it a '91'. I mean, what does a number even mean? He gives dozens of California chardonnays the same number. It's just nuts. Who would opt for a Neyers Vineyard chard over this? Perhaps the blogmeister's wife (yes, Dotoré, I read your lovely comments). But hey now, this is what Barolo's all about. Of course, you have to try about 10 to get one, and it makes Burg hunting look easy. Two and half MICE. [ed. tour de force review of two BIG problems and one teeny weeny one. RP's ratings are absurd. The 100 point system is more like 12 points - 85 to 97. Barolo is so challenging that it DOES make Burgundy look easy. You DO have to go through 10 to find 1 that is more magical than Siegfried and Roy. OK. Bad metaphor. We all look to Dotoré for leadership in dealing with that itty bitty problem.]

Wine Three!!!
2003 La Cueva del Contador Rioja $75 online: At this point John pointed to his lofty rack and asked in his South African lilt what I wanted. Not ever having tasted a high-end tempranillo, I requested a Rioja and got this . . . words, words, words. OK, here's a try. The first sip was ordinary. I didn't get it. Then, Kaiser Soze [ed. the sneaky chameleon character from Usual Suspects], highly metaphorical! entered the room. The second and subsequent sips filled my senses with an ethereal implosion that said, "You've never had anything like this, and you won't ever again". A wine for the ages. Descriptors don't help, but people talk about the mid-palate and this Rioja hit this landing strip like a cyclone. Three MICE. Only 200 bottles exported to USA, and John, Big Gary My Driver, and I couldn't finish because here came...

Wine Four!!!
2003 Michele Castellani Amarone I Castei~$80 online: OK, this wasn't the best Amarone I've had, but that's only because a few years back John poured me the '97 Quintarelli, which deserves a four-page entry in Wikipedia. But this was pretty special. The Blogmeister says he doesn't favor Amarone, and we're gonna have to remedy this in July. I'd only say this: it is a hard to match with food. I'd pick some hard cheese and call it a day. This is, like all great wines, bursting with a myriad of flavor yet NOT HEAVY. You can taste the winemaker's pride, because he knows no one is making anything else like it outside of Veneto. To freaking die for. Three MICE.

Wine Five!!!!!
2003 Chiaccheri Amarone: Three More Mice. Once you've gone with Amarone, you cannot return to anything else. Your palate would laugh at you. I'm running out of mice, but this was my favorite of the night, a little richer and more chocolaty than the previous bottle, which Big Gary preferred. But he preferred this, too. I wanted to smack myself so I could drink more, but I only managed a glass and half. Spent, spoiled and saturated, we returned home. A night for the ages.

[ed. Well, I am spent. Reading this review was a bit like watching James Brown - hit me!! - try to totter off stage under a sweat soaked cape only to toss it off and rush back to the mike screaming more ecstasy into the crowd. Again and again. The natural response is to wish I was there. Perfectly normal. Just because I have never tasted an Amarone I liked much less loved. Same goes for Tempranillo. In fact I was recently disappointed in a 1996 Alenza - to be reviewed in next week's post - and a 1994 Roda I that should have been ethereal instead of OK and quickly fading. Good news is we get Mouse in a couple weeks. Our plan is forming like a Bush White House memo finding a way to bomb another Middle East country. Secretly, demented, grandiose. If only we can solve that little teensy problem...Happy 50th mister!] Share your all-time greatest wine? I already did in this post from August 2007.

Ladies and Genulmens here he is the Hardest Workin Man in Show Biznisss...that's ten mouses!!!!!!!!!!

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!!!

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%

Labor Day is the nominal "end-of-summer" holiday. Of course, we know summer can last another 6 to 8 weeks easily. And we want it to. This summer tBoW converted to the Church of Chenin Blanc. Blame tBoW taster/blogger Mouse who got it all started with two tastings in July. After tasting through a couple Coteaux de Layons and a Quarts de Chaume it all became clear. This was enough to prompt tBoW to trade the remainder of his vintage Sauternes holdings for a bunch of Coteaux du Layon and Quarts de Chaume wines. I do not think I will ever look back. [ed. what tBoW traded above; what he got below]

One of the pleasures of drinking wine is observing how my own palate changes (along with Dotoré and Mouse). From Cabernet to Pinot Noir to Nebbiolo to Beaujolais and SW France/Rhone styles on the red side of the cellar; with a good dosage of Argentine Malbec. And from Chardonnay to Sauvignon Blanc to Riesling to Spanish/Italian/Rhone types on the blanc side. The go-to red varietals today are Pinot Noir and French Gamay. Any fresh fruity wine from Argentina, France, Italy or Spain will do with the summer focusing on Rosé and Moscato d'Asti wines.

But when it comes to dessert wines today it is all Chenin Blanc. And now we have a bunch we can get to know.

2006 Tablas Creek Counoise $28: This was really nice wine. Like a Cru Beaujolias, even Morgon. I was so impressed I thought I might order some more but all gone! A screw cap beauty. Fresh fruity flavors even some cranberry. Nice middle weight. 14.5%

1989 Vouvray Moelleux Domaine Bourillon d'Orleans Tres de Noble Grains $45: Looking up anything on an unusual wine like this one is fun because I find out (i) what some people like to eat with this sweetie; lots of curry and spicy dishes! I will bet it is a great match; (ii) how many Chenin Blanc fans there are out there tasting through these wines year in and out; and (iii) how few producers there are in France. Jim Ruxin brought this wine out to finish the meal at a Labor Day party. What a nice surprise. Lime and coconut. Chalky texture and some limestone flavors. Slightly bitter on the mid palate. Jim said "drying out marzipan". Not a flaw just a signal we are drinking this at or close to its peak. 13%

Then we watched the International Space Station docked with the Space Shuttle flyover Bel Air from SW to NE. The view was something like the youtube video below.

2006 Uvaggo Barbera Rosato $14: "That old wine" asked the winemaker JIm Moore when I reported how well received was his summer wine. Watermelon flavors, good acid, and nicely balanced. Really fine. A steady hand makes a very interesting wine from Lodi. A nice complement to his Vermentino. Terrific U20 value wine. 13.2%

2003 Felix Callejo Seleccion de Viñedos de la Familia $100: 100% Tempranillo from Ribera del Duero. One of the better Tempranillo wines tBoW has tried. Quite lush. Even tempered. Seductive. Middle weight. And very pricey!! 14%