Next big thing? I've tried -- and enjoyed -- a few different Pinot Noirs from New Zealand's Marlborough and Martinborough regions in recent months. But Central Otago, which is way way in the south of South Island and is one of the southernmost wine regions in the world, is supposed to be another premier region. So Gary and I took the 2003 Rowland "Wild Thyme" Central Otago Pinot Noir ($25 at Martin Wine Cellar) to dinner at Mat and Naddie's Friday. Like a big nerd, I organized my meal around it -- duck confit salad, followed by the venison entree. Fortunately, the wine did not disappoint.
     The nose was pretty subtle. The fruit sort of smelled like the love child of a cranberry and a Tempranillo grape. There was also a pleasant herbal undertone -- rosemary or maybe even wild thyme. It's tangy and zippy on the tongue. The middle and end are dry, steady and fruity. I usually like Pinot Noirs that smell like asphalt and pepper, and this didn't have either. But I'll still give it a 15 or a 15.5.
     Gary just thought it was smooth, pleasantly fruity and not overly sweet. He gave it a 16.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 11:43 AM
 :: Comments? []

ZAP in New Orleans. After work the other day Steph and I headed over to "Zin in the City," a tasting organized by Zinfandel Advocates & Producers. I wasn't sure what to expect. It's been a while since Wine Club tasted a bunch of Zins at once. I'd read that article on alcohol inflation in California wines, and fruit-bombing Zin makers are on the outer edge of the trend. Fortunately, the wines at ZAP were varied -- and much less boozy -- than I feared.
     Of course, one of my favorite wines of the night -- the newly released 2003 Ballentine Vineyards Block 11 Estate Zinfandel -- was a 17-percenter. It's a hefty wine, but has some subtlety to it; the fruit doesn't just erupt out of it. I also liked their 2001 Ballentine Vineyards Block 9 Estate Zinfandel and their Zinfandel Port. Interestingly, this Napa Valley winery's sales manager, Mesha, is one of the reasons I even knew about ZAP; she posted a comment about the event a while back. Glad she did. At events like this, you can't possibly try everything, and I might not have known to check out this winery -- especially since their wines aren't yet sold around here.
     My notes for this event are pretty lame, because I was juggling a wine glass, a program, a pen, cheese and a bunch of other stuff. (Maybe Steph did better?) But some of the other hits for me included the 2003 Edmeades Mendocino Zinfandel, a straightforward, earthy-nosed, unapologetically fruity Zin that goes for $18 or so. The super-extracted 2002 Mauritson Family Winery Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel comes from a Sonoma family has been growing grapes forever but is only starting to produce its own wine. I vaguely remember enjoying their 2003 Rockpile Ridge Zinfandel, too.
     Alexander Valley Winery produces the terrific 2003 Redemption Dry Creek Valley Zin. They're the same people who make SinZin. The guy doing the pouring says SinZin is fleshy and you're meant to revel in it; RedemptionZin "requires some work from you." Also worth trying: 2000 Saxon Brown Winery Casa Santinamaria Vineyard Zinfandel, which turns out to have -- and benefit from -- a bit of Petite Sirah. The '99 of the same wine wasn't bad, but it smelled almost like a Pinot Noir, and the fruit was a little too bright for a Zin.
     That was a minor defect compared with some others I tasted. Other people were mocking Sineann, the only Oregon winery at the event. I'm much more interested in Oregon Pinots than some other people I know, so I was willing to give the Zins a shot. Big mistake. The 2003 Sineann Old Vine Columbia Valley Zin had a rubbery nose and didn't seem much like a Zin at all. I guess it's interesting to see what Zin can do without all that sun. But drinking it -- at $36, no less -- is another story entirely.
     Finally, the three R's of the Zin world. I'm done with Ravenswood and didn't bother with them. Two of the three wines Rosenblum had available were decent but didn't stand out from the crowd; the third was overly floral and tasted like bubblegum and cotton candy. Not sure what happened there. But Ridge came through. The 2003 Ridge Lytton Springs Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel was soft and velvety and, as Steph put it, has "just the right amount of chocolate." It was the first wine Steph and I tried, and maybe the best I tasted all night.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 7:25 PM
 :: Comments? []

WINE BLOGGING WEDNESDAY #8. Ron at LoveSicily chose Sicilian reds as the theme. The wine store in our neighborhood had two candidates. One was $53. The other was about $10. Obviously, I picked the latter.
     The 2002 Feudo d'Elimi Nero d'Avola is, according to the label, made of "the most famous red variety in Sicily." The wine turns out to be an amiable, soft, nondescript, pleasantly tannic, easily chuggable wine with not much of an edge to it. The bottle is pretty. But beyond detecting a vague ras-strawberry nose, I couldn't get much traction on it. For a minute I thought I caught some cumin in the nose, but we were drinking it in a restaurant -- and sitting near the kitchen. The longer I sat with it, the flabbier I found it. An inoffensive crowd-pleaser that I rated as an 11.5 out of 20.
     Gary was more enthusiastic. He thought it was plummy and very fruity, and he gave it a 15.
     The label claims that this wine evokes "lovely plum, red fruit, vanilla and spice." Plums and "red fruit," sure. But I didn't get much vanilla or spice. The wine supposedly has a "fine ability to age," but this strikes me as exactly wrong. Better to drink it up now.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 9:14 PM
 :: Comments? []

March results. Our tastings never have news pegs, but this one -- first conceived as an evening with Châteauneuf du Pape -- had a completely unintentional resonance with the big story of the week. We tasted some really great wines. Too bad the dollar is in free fall.
     Tonight's menu included a Moroccanish chicken dish, snow pea and prosciutto salad, couscous and various cheeses and breads.

     1) "Sicily." 2000 Domaine Raspail-Ay Gigondas Reserve Rouge; blend of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre. $28 at Cork & Bottle. Average 14.63; range 13-16. Apparently there are two styles of Gigondas -- one that's not trying to be Châteauneuf du Pape, and one that is. This one is the latter. Pam thought it smelled like toffee; Steph said the nose went from caramel to chocolate to coffee. But there was a pleasant earthy undertone to it, too, maybe even a tiny hint of gasoline. I was the high scorer on this one, and I thought it had an amazing amount of body given the restraint of the fruit. Others found it smooth, well-rounded, delicious, drinkable, balanced and complex. Steph initially said it didn't have enough fruit, but then kept revising her score upward. (Fortunately, Gary brought his laptop.)
     2) "Andalusia." 2002 Château de Saint Cosme Gigondas. $27 at the Wine Seller. Average 14.56; range 14-15. This is the other style of Gigondas -- brasher, bistroish, countryish, the French equivalent of "hey, y'all, we're hicks." And we loved this one, too. Musty in the nose at first. Fruitier than the other Gigondas, though none of us specified which fruit. Steph remarked on its brightness. Changes a lot in the glass; the initial pucker fades as it opens up. "I feel the love with it," Gary said.
     3) "Patagonia." 2002 Perrin & Fils Vacqueyras "Les Christins"; 75& Grenache, 25% Syrah. $20 at Cork & Bottle. Average 13.13; range 12.5-14. In another tasting, this might have been the favorite of the night. Reminded Pam of boysenberries and blackberries; Steph of "good cherry cough syrup." She thought it didn't aim as high as some of the other wines but lives up to its potential. Some people did think there was a sameness about it once you had a few sips. (Le Blog de La Famille Perrin may or may not be worth checking out. I can't read French.)
     4) "Basra." 2001 Domaine de la Solitude Lançon Family Vineyards Châteauneuf du Pape; 65% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 15% Mourvèdre. $35 at Cork & Bottle. Average 12.88; range 10-15. This was the second wine we tasted, and most of us found it unusual. I thought it was pleasantly grapey and a little jammy, but it also had a hint of orange zest in the nose. It also seemed pretty tightly wound; it tasted like dark, unsweetened chocolate and left a pleasant little buzz on the tongue. Steph and Becky (who knew what it was) thought it blossomed and turned pretty smooth. Charles compared it to Vicks Formula 44 but liked it. Speaking for the (relative) naysayers, Terri thought it tasted green and overly alcoholic. "Too much but too little at the same time," Pam said.
     5) "Chiapas." NV Little James’ Basket Press, Louis et Cherry Barruol. $14 at Cork & Bottle. Average 11.88; range 11-12. A baby Gigondas, produced by the folks at Saint Cosme (see "Andalusia," the second-ranked wine). You might call this a wine with a small footprint, because it's lean and restrained. Dry, acidic, tannic, maybe with some tobacco and light roses in the nose. Some disagreement over which berries were in it: Steph said cherry, raspberry, strawberry but definitely not cranberry; berry master Becky agreed with me that cranberry was more like it. Whatever. It went very well with Terri's chicken dish. Gary found it musty. Reminded Chip of Communion wine. "Textbook naked Grenache," Jon of Cork & Bottle had told Steph and Becky.
     6) "Antarctica." 2000 André Brunel Côtes du Rhône Villages Rasteau "Les Sambiches"; Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre. $15 at Cork & Bottle. Average 11.5; range 10.5-12.5. Pam thought this was a fruit bomb but not cloying, and it reminded Becky of green fruit salad and star fruit. Sweaty and rindy, I thought. Charles said it was almost a dessert wine, and if he ordered it at a restaurant he'd be disappointed. Gary disliked its "cheap White Zinfandel sweetness." Apparently Rasteau is up for its own AOC, but for now it's officially a Cotes du Rhone Villages.

     Interesting fact: The person who liked these wines the most was Steph, whose average score was 13.75. The lowest average scores came from Pam and Chip, who tied at 12.67. Not a huge range, and still pretty high.
     Chip was the first to figure out that the fake names all refer to southern outposts.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 9:04 PM
 :: Comments? []

2002 Graziano Mendocino Zinfandel. Picked this up for $12 or so at Cork & Bottle. Not long ago Gary and I took it to Adolfo's, the Italianish fish place on Frenchmen Street. Though I wasn't sure a Zin was the best idea, this one turned out to be a good match for the meal.
     Of course, it was barely recognizable as Zinfandel; I wondered how far north (and how close to the coast) the grapes were grown. Far lighter than most, and with less alcohol -- 14.5 percent -- than many. Smells like strawberries and rosemary. Zesty and tangy on the tongue, with a tiny bit of sugar.
     Gary thought it was maybe too fruity but thought he'd enjoy drinking it on a summer day. He gave it a 16. I thought it wasn't true to itself but was still pretty tasty and gave it a 14.
     Graziano makes various Cal-Itals under other brand names. This Zin appears to be one of the first wines they've put their own name on.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 8:54 PM
 :: Comments? []