Wine-savvy

[FNX]

import the grapes man

[payatot]

was invited to robert craig's "representation without taxation" party at their downtown napa tasting room

started with a 2007 mt george cuvee

65% cab sauv, 30% cab franc, 5% merlot

good everyday wine

$30 per bottle

 

barrel tasted 2008 affinity cab sauv and 2008 mt veeder cab sauv

loved both of them; the mt veeder was very bold compared to the affinity. can't wait for their release

 

tasted both 1999 affinity cab sauv and 1999 mt veeder cab sauv

poured by robert craig himself; short chat with him

 

1999 affinity

deep red, black cherry, blackberry, some smoke, some sweetness and oak

at $80 a bottle, i was a bit disappointed. it was nothing extraordinary. i found it a little soft

 

1999 mt veeder

ruby red, purplish color, smoke, oak, fuller bodied than the affinity, moderate tannins

 

my favorite:

2006 mt veeder cab sauv

81% cabernet, 19% merlot

black fruits, chocolate, vanilla, cedar

great finish

$70 per bottle; i brought home a case :thumbsupsmiley:

 

also had a short chat with steve tebb, one of robert craig's winemakers

Edited April 20, 2009 by payatot

[agxo3]

import the grapes man

 

Not a practical suggestion. The grapes have to be picked at a ripeness level the winemaker specifies (so the winemaker has to be on-site at harvest time) and they don't last more than a few hours before they're past the desired ripeness and sugar level.

 

Some wineries here in the US have tried importing grape JUICE from France and making the wine here - with not a lot of success. Letting the juice sit in cold storage for weeks while in transit does some really funny things to the flavors.

 

Or, you can import that fermented wine, and bottle it locally, at which point, I'd ask - why???? Other than the lower weight of wine in stainless steel tanks vs. in bottle, there's not much point since the labor intensive (and costly part) of the process is already done! Unless you're talking about wines of the 2 buck chuck genre - in which case, I'd say that's not even drinkable, so what's the point?

 

On a related topic - went tasting at a new (for me) winery yesterday. Place called Picchetti up in the hills above Cupertino. Century-old place, survived Prohibition by becoming a ranch instead. BUT - the wines were just okay. Nothing remarkable about them. The winer was the zin, made from grapes sourced from another property in Santa Clara County. Hmmmm - other than the ambiance of the place, nothing to recommend it.

 

Also went to Retzlaff on Saturday for the release of their 2006 Family Reserve. Only the 4th time in 30 years they've released a Family Reserve. Very small production (120 cases total), all grapes from the vines in their front yard. Lush, rich, smooth tannins. Still a bit fruit-forward, which should recede with aging, letting the tannins get more pronounced and balancing the wine out somewhat more. I would guess 3-5 years in the bottle. So I bought 2 bottles.

 

Finally inventoried my wine last week, and re-arranged my storage. I'm down to just over 20 cases (woohoo! That means I've been drinking more than buying!). Time to drink those '93, '94 and '95 Opus Ones, and the '96-'99 Rubicons. They're never going to be more ready to drink than now. I see a great series of summer wine sipping parties coming up.

[payatot]

agxo, you want to invite me over?

[agxo3]

agxo, you want to invite me over?

 

Get yourself out my way and PM me......depending on what's going on, where and with which group......this goes for you all. Storm, Masi, Bods - you still owe me a Livermore wine day! When are you coming this way for that?

[FNX]

actually sir agxo3 i think novellino here does that - or do they just import the juice

Edited April 22, 2009 by FNX

[agxo3]

actually sir agxo3 i think novellino here does that - or do they just import the juice

 

If they import the juice, then that would partially explain the less than good results. Weeks of cold storage before fermentation would certainly drastically change the character of the resulting wine. I don't know anything about their winemaker, so I couldn't tell you anything about his track record.

[floppydrive]

If they import the juice, then that would partially explain the less than good results. Weeks of cold storage before fermentation would certainly drastically change the character of the resulting wine. I don't know anything about their winemaker, so I couldn't tell you anything about his track record.

Is it also the reason why they make sweet wines so it masks the quality of the "juice"?

 

On a side note, I had a Ventisquero Queulat Gran Reserva 2005 - a Chilean cab sauv. It had long legs, deep ruby color. Couldn't get a good sniff due to the raclette, but it had a good balance of flavors - berries and tannins and an oak finish. Couldn't believe I drank more than half a bottle.

[Jessieboy]

Ciao to the masters here! Im not really a big wine fan, but since ill be staying here in italy for 6 long years and it seems that wine is a part of their daily life, would you guys recomend me what kind of red wine should i buy? I always buy red wine whenever its on sale, the cheaper ones at about 2 euros a bottle and its ok with me with regards to the taste, flavor. I also look for the milder one like 11% alcohol content. Any recomendation from you guys will be greatly appreciated.

[gadalej]

Ciao to the masters here! Im not really a big wine fan, but since ill be staying here in italy for 6 long years and it seems that wine is a part of their daily life, would you guys recomend me what kind of red wine should i buy? I always buy red wine whenever its on sale, the cheaper ones at about 2 euros a bottle and its ok with me with regards to the taste, flavor. I also look for the milder one like 11% alcohol content. Any recomendation from you guys will be greatly appreciated.

 

if you can afford it, barolo and barbaresco.

[Jessieboy]

if you can afford it, barolo and barbaresco.

Thanks ill try to look at those, however how much do u think a bottle costs? If its too pricey then i guess ill just stick to the cheaper ones.

[agxo3]

Ciao to the masters here! Im not really a big wine fan, but since ill be staying here in italy for 6 long years and it seems that wine is a part of their daily life, would you guys recomend me what kind of red wine should i buy? I always buy red wine whenever its on sale, the cheaper ones at about 2 euros a bottle and its ok with me with regards to the taste, flavor. I also look for the milder one like 11% alcohol content. Any recomendation from you guys will be greatly appreciated.

 

if you can afford it, barolo and barbaresco.

 

Thanks ill try to look at those, however how much do u think a bottle costs? If its too pricey then i guess ill just stick to the cheaper ones.

 

Where in Italy are you? It's not a large country but it has quite a few distinct wine regions, each of which is known for a certain type of wine. I would go for the whatever is the local wine. Ask your local wine shop to recommend their favorite local wine - make friends with a local winemaker, and ask him to recommend other local winemakers. It's a great way to get to know the locals and learn about the wine, the community, the culture, the food.......

 

Barolo and barbaresco are among the most expensive of the Italian varietals - unless it's really poor quality, I doubt you'll find any 2EUR examples. You'll also note that it may be difficult to find a wine labeled with the varietal - intead they are more likely to be labeled with the wine REGION, as in France. Therefore unless you know the wine regions in Italy and what varietals each region uses you may not be too successful finding good, lower priced local wines.

 

For lower priced wines that are best known world-wide, I'd look for a good Chianti, one of the Tuscan wines, or one of the Sicilian wines.

 

What I found in Italy and France was that the local wines are typically quite good and very reasonably priced. Don't go looking for the internationally known labels. I think they keep the good stuff for themselves and export the schlock stuff to the unsuspecting world. I was drinking wine with dinner every night in Rome (a VERY expensive city to eat in!) and paying less ordering a good bottle in a restaurant than for a bottle of sparkling water - about 5EUR for a bottle of wine vs. 7EUR for a liter of water!

[floppydrive]

Where in Italy are you? It's not a large country but it has quite a few distinct wine regions, each of which is known for a certain type of wine. I would go for the whatever is the local wine. Ask your local wine shop to recommend their favorite local wine - make friends with a local winemaker, and ask him to recommend other local winemakers. It's a great way to get to know the locals and learn about the wine, the community, the culture, the food.......

 

Barolo and barbaresco are among the most expensive of the Italian varietals - unless it's really poor quality, I doubt you'll find any 2EUR examples. You'll also note that it may be difficult to find a wine labeled with the varietal - intead they are more likely to be labeled with the wine REGION, as in France. Therefore unless you know the wine regions in Italy and what varietals each region uses you may not be too successful finding good, lower priced local wines.

 

For lower priced wines that are best known world-wide, I'd look for a good Chianti, one of the Tuscan wines, or one of the Sicilian wines.

 

What I found in Italy and France was that the local wines are typically quite good and very reasonably priced. Don't go looking for the internationally known labels. I think they keep the good stuff for themselves and export the schlock stuff to the unsuspecting world. I was drinking wine with dinner every night in Rome (a VERY expensive city to eat in!) and paying less ordering a good bottle in a restaurant than for a bottle of sparkling water - about 5EUR for a bottle of wine vs. 7EUR for a liter of water!

And on that note, may I add that the Italians frown upon sodas. To further drive down that point, it costs the same to order a bottle of wine (750ml) as it is to order a can of coke (330ml) in restaurants. But who can argue with that when their local table wines are so good?

 

While you're there, might as well enjoy real pizza cooked in brick ovens using fresh ingredients, their hams and cheeses. You'll have a whole new perspective of what good food should be!

[Jessieboy]

Where in Italy are you? It's not a large country but it has quite a few distinct wine regions, each of which is known for a certain type of wine. I would go for the whatever is the local wine. Ask your local wine shop to recommend their favorite local wine - make friends with a local winemaker, and ask him to recommend other local winemakers. It's a great way to get to know the locals and learn about the wine, the community, the culture, the food.......

 

Barolo and barbaresco are among the most expensive of the Italian varietals - unless it's really poor quality, I doubt you'll find any 2EUR examples. You'll also note that it may be difficult to find a wine labeled with the varietal - intead they are more likely to be labeled with the wine REGION, as in France. Therefore unless you know the wine regions in Italy and what varietals each region uses you may not be too successful finding good, lower priced local wines.

 

For lower priced wines that are best known world-wide, I'd look for a good Chianti, one of the Tuscan wines, or one of the Sicilian wines.

 

What I found in Italy and France was that the local wines are typically quite good and very reasonably priced. Don't go looking for the internationally known labels. I think they keep the good stuff for themselves and export the schlock stuff to the unsuspecting world. I was drinking wine with dinner every night in Rome (a VERY expensive city to eat in!) and paying less ordering a good bottle in a restaurant than for a bottle of sparkling water - about 5EUR for a bottle of wine vs. 7EUR for a liter of water!

 

Im staying in milan bro. As i was saying, im just starting to appeciate wine. They have loads and loads of varieties here and ive heard that they produce good wines here however wala nga ako alam pagdating sa kung ano dapat pilliin and of course yung kaya ko bilhin. I will not go for the expensive ones just for the heck of saying i have tasted this and that bro if u know what i mean. I recently bought 2 bottles of red from a grocery, Nero Davola from sicilia and Oltrepo Pavese, dunno which part in italy it came from. Sabi nung binilhan ko it goes well with salami and cheese and its a good wine daw at a bargain price of 5 euros each. Anyway, thanks for the info bro, ill try to look for those uve mentioned and will post it here. Ciao.

[Jessieboy]

And on that note, may I add that the Italians frown upon sodas. To further drive down that point, it costs the same to order a bottle of wine (750ml) as it is to order a can of coke (330ml) in restaurants. But who can argue with that when their local table wines are so good?

 

While you're there, might as well enjoy real pizza cooked in brick ovens using fresh ingredients, their hams and cheeses. You'll have a whole new perspective of what good food should be!

Youre right bro, they have bars here wherein u can order a glass of wine for a mere 1 euro, same price as coke and beer. They also have a big assortment of cheese, salami, hams, and olives which is a good condiment for wine. can u tell me whats the difference between american and european wines? I heard from some barkadas in manila that italian wines are quite more pricey compared to those american made wines. They even contemplate of us doing business like me sending wine and them looking for prospects in manila which makes me think why not di ba? Anyway thanks for the info bro, ill definitely try to explore more about wines here and will post here for you guys.

[agxo3]

Youre right bro, they have bars here wherein u can order a glass of wine for a mere 1 euro, same price as coke and beer. They also have a big assortment of cheese, salami, hams, and olives which is a good condiment for wine. can u tell me whats the difference between american and european wines? I heard from some barkadas in manila that italian wines are quite more pricey compared to those american made wines. They even contemplate of us doing business like me sending wine and them looking for prospects in manila which makes me think why not di ba? Anyway thanks for the info bro, ill definitely try to explore more about wines here and will post here for you guys.

 

Differences between American vs. European wines? Might as well ask what are the differences between the wines from two neighboring winemakers! Even year to year, wines from the same vineyard and the same winemaker can be dramatically different.

 

What drives the differences? Time, temperature, weather, fertilizer, soil, winemaker and winemaking style..........

 

Price is an artificial way of comparing wines and is only useful to determine if you are willing to pay for what you get with each bottle you buy.

 

Local wines will tend to go well with the foods that are common locally - that only makes sense. Why make a wine you can't drink with your food? That nero davola you bought from Sicily should be good. I've had some that were awesome.

 

You should get a wine map of Italy so you can see what is grown where and get some tasting notes. Then don't just swill the wine - TASTE it. SMELL it. FEEL it. THINK about it as you swirl it around in your mouth. Taste the different fruits and foods around you, then see what responses the wine generates in your mouth - what flavors come to mind? What impressions do you get? Does the smell remind you of straberries? OR of a barnyard? Does the taste recall that blueberry or raspberry you just had, or a piece of roasted meat?

 

With wine so cheap around you, you are in a perfect position to learn so much about wine that I envy you! Take advantage of it.

[bods1000]

Get yourself out my way and PM me......depending on what's going on, where and with which group......this goes for you all. Storm, Masi, Bods - you still owe me a Livermore wine day! When are you coming this way for that?

 

There's a PAL promo which has among others, a US$418 round trip fare to the West Coast. Goes on sale tomorrow and Tuesday only, with trip to be taken between Sept and Dec or something like that. Looks inviting and we're studying it hehehe. Been my dream to go to SF and the vineyards there.

[agxo3]

There's a PAL promo which has among others, a US$418 round trip fare to the West Coast. Goes on sale tomorrow and Tuesday only, with trip to be taken between Sept and Dec or something like that. Looks inviting and we're studying it hehehe. Been my dream to go to SF and the vineyards there.

 

What are you waiting for? RUN, don't walk to the nearest PAL office and buy that ticket!!! Then let me know when you're coming and we can plan your California wine adventure.

Edited April 27, 2009 by agxo3

[storm]

Sayang I missed this! Dami kasing work!

[bods1000]

What are you waiting for? RUN, don't walk to the nearest PAL office and buy that ticket!!! Then let me know when you're coming and we can plan your California wine adventure.

 

Online booking lang pards. We tried it MOnday pero inabot na kami ng hatinggabi hindi kami maka-book. Seems like the site had glitches or was overloaded. Bad experience booking there online :grr:

[agxo3]

Online booking lang pards. We tried it MOnday pero inabot na kami ng hatinggabi hindi kami maka-book. Seems like the site had glitches or was overloaded. Bad experience booking there online :grr:

 

If at first you don't succeed, find an insider who'll help!

 

Hope you can book a flight Bods! I can visualize at least 3 very nice day tours - Napa, Sonoma, Livermore. All with a VERY nice dinner at the end of the day!

 

Lessee - Napa: Rubicon, Turnbull, maybe Caymus, Opus One just for the experience, Chimney Rock, BV for the history, Hess. Dinner @ French Laundry if we can get reservations or Ad Hoc.

Livermore: Retzlaff, Boaventuras, Wood Family, Les Chenes, LVC, Charles R, Page Mill, Deer Creek. Dinner @ Zephyr's, the Firehouse, Uncle Yu at the Vineyards or Wente.

Sonoma: Williamson, J, Jordan, Davis Bynum, Armida. Diner @ Cyrus if we can get reservations. If not, Syrah, Willi's Wine Bar, Charlie Palmer's or The Girl and the Fig.

[bods1000]

If at first you don't succeed, find an insider who'll help!

 

Hope you can book a flight Bods! I can visualize at least 3 very nice day tours - Napa, Sonoma, Livermore. All with a VERY nice dinner at the end of the day!

 

Lessee - Napa: Rubicon, Turnbull, maybe Caymus, Opus One just for the experience, Chimney Rock, BV for the history, Hess. Dinner @ French Laundry if we can get reservations or Ad Hoc.

Livermore: Retzlaff, Boaventuras, Wood Family, Les Chenes, LVC, Charles R, Page Mill, Deer Creek. Dinner @ Zephyr's, the Firehouse, Uncle Yu at the Vineyards or Wente.

Sonoma: Williamson, J, Jordan, Davis Bynum, Armida. Diner @ Cyrus if we can get reservations. If not, Syrah, Willi's Wine Bar, Charlie Palmer's or The Girl and the Fig.

 

It was actually from an insider that I first knew of this promo even before it hit the papers, but I guess the insiders beat me to it hehehe...sayang. Fate willing talagang mapupunta ko dyan one of these days.

I salivate at your planned itinerary. Rubicon! French Laundry! Caymus! Stuff I only read about! Thanks pare. Will be there one of these days. Just have to find time for it hehehe

[agxo3]

It was actually from an insider that I first knew of this promo even before it hit the papers, but I guess the insiders beat me to it hehehe...sayang. Fate willing talagang mapupunta ko dyan one of these days.

I salivate at your planned itinerary. Rubicon! French Laundry! Caymus! Stuff I only read about! Thanks pare. Will be there one of these days. Just have to find time for it hehehe

 

Oh, well....there will be other promos. And other opportunities.

 

Wifey is off up north (Petaluma and Cotati) going to some warehouse sales, and she called to tell me she found a wine distributor blowing out some of their wines to make room for more. So I asked her to buy - 3 Vouvrays and 3 Moulin-a-Vent red Bourgognes.

 

Back to buying more than I'm drinking.......haven't had much wine at all this week. Last Sunday I fell of my mountain bike while on a steep downhill trail and cracked a bone in my elbow. Yesterday was the first day I DIDN'T dose up in ibuprofen, so it was the first day I felt comfortable having some wine. So I brought a bottle of 2003 Rubicon Estates Reserve Merlot in for our Friday afternoon wine social. I'd forgotten how nice a good merlot can be! Well structured with sweet tannins, fruit just coming forward, nice body, great color and a nose you wouldn't believe! Wow......what 5+ years in the bottle can do for a wine.....this is no California merlot best for blending, but a REAL Bordeaux-style wine!

 

See what you're missing, Bods?

[storm]

Tsalap naman Agxo. Thanks for sharing.

[agxo3]

Last Friday, we had our usual Friday wine social. A bit unusual - we also had an unusual food pairing - bacon dipped in chocolate. Nice!

 

And it went well with the wines I brought (for which I am glad since I chose them specifically for the bacon/chocolate combo. First was a Cameron Hughes lot 23 meritage. Vintage 2002. Mostly merlot, with some cab sauv, cab franc, malbec and petit verdot blended in. Smooth tannins, not as nice as the Rubicon Estates merlot from the previous week, but very nice nonetheless - especially since it was a $12 bottle!

 

Cameron Hughes, for those of you who haven't heard of it, is not really a winery, but a Sonoma-based negociahnt. IOW< they buy wines form others and blend/bottle it. Cameron Hughes is sold mostly at Costco, although recently I have begun to see it in places like Cost Plus World Markets.

 

I also brought a 200 Deer Ridge Reserve Syrah - not bad for a $4 bottle! Actually, it was very popular with the crowd. It IS a nice wine, robust, with great red fruit, some plum and a hint of cassis. This one has a LOT of smoke and a hefty dose of oak since it spent 5 years in the barrel!

 

What to do for an encore this week? Hmmmmmmm........???????