Wine Review: 2004 Loimer Grüner Veltliner

Name: 2004 Loimer Grüner Veltliner

Producer: Loimer

Region: Austria, Käferberg

Classification: N/A

Type: White Wine

Variety: Grüner Veltliner

Year/Vintage: 2004

Bottle Size: 750ml

Purchased: $17.99, PA Wine Store, January 2009

Date Logged: 1/19/2009

Pairing(s): Grilled Pork Loin

My Rating: 2.5 Stars

This was my first experience with a Grüner Veltliner. Unfortunately, it was a little boring. There’s nothing wrong with this wine; it’s just not much to it. It is fairly lightweight, with some citrus (mainly grapefruit), a little grass, and some faint minerality. It was fairly well balanced, with a short, slightly astringent finish. Although light overall, it did manage to stand up to the pork, and may become more exciting with grilled seafood or maybe sushi. For $18, though, I doubt if I give it a second chance.

Wine Review: 2004 Olek-Mery Cuvee Des Tireaux

Name: 2004 Olek-Mery Cuvee Des Tireaux Chinon

Producer: Olek-Mery

Region: France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon

Classification: N/A

Type: Red Wine

Variety: Cabernet Franc

Year/Vintage: 2004

Bottle Size: 750ml

Purchased: $21.99, PA Wine Store, February, 2008

Date Logged: 1/17/2009

Pairing(s): Pizza

My Rating: 4 Stars

A very nice food-friendly wine. Beautiful color and nice red berry-rich nose. It followed up on the palate with raspberry and cherry fruit, and loads of green peppers. The latter really made it go well with the classic pepperoni and vegetable pizza that we paired with it. It finished with a mild dose of tannins and a slightly metallic aftertaste. A little pricey, but different and tasty enough to get again.

Wine Review: 2005 Bodega Septima Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon

Name: 2005 Bodega Septima Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon

Producer: Bodega Septima

Region: Argentina, Mendoza, Luján de Cuyo

Classification: Gran Reserva

Type: Red Wine

Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon

Year/Vintage: 2005

Bottle Size: 750ml

Purchased: $18.99, PA Wine & Spirits, October, 2008

Date Logged: 11/15/2008

Pairing(s): Grilled steak with gargonzola cheese and butter

My Rating: 4 Stars

The bottle that this wine comes in looks larger than usual and feels a bit on the heavy side. Which is fitting, since this is a big wine. Dark, dark red color in the glass. Lots of red fruit on the nose - cherries, raspberries and strawberries, all of which follow through on the palate, along with some green pepper and vegetable components as well. Not overly complex, but not exactly a fruit bomb either. Quite tannic on the long finish, this wine needs a strong food to pair with. I had it with grilled NY Strip at Café Du Jour, and the wine complemented the spices and gorgonzola cheese that they rub on the steak very nicely. If you’re looking for a delicious, almost-but-not-quite-Bordeaux style of wine for a big meal, this is a good choice for less than 20 bucks.

Wine Review: 2007 Rudolf Müller Riesling Kabinett

Name: 2007 Rudolf Müller Riesling Kabinett
Producer: Rudolph Muller
Region: Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
Classification: N/A
Type: White Wine
Variety: Riesling
Year/Vintage: 2007
Bottle Size: 750ml
Purchased: $12.99, PA Wine & Spirits, October, 2008
Date Logged: 11/12/2008
Pairing(s): Green Curry (spicy 9 out of 10)
My Rating: 3-1/2 Stars

Our string of hits continues. Another good value from the Mosel river valley of Germany. This wine paired very well with a relatively spicy curry. Very pale in the glass, almost clear, with strong green apple and citrus components on the nose and palate. The wine had a delicious sweetness up front and a really nice mineral finish. Better with food than without, but easy-drinking either way. Highly recommended.

Wine Review: 2004 Placido Chianti Classico

Name: 2004 Placido Chianti Classico
Producer: Placido
Region: Italy, Tuscany, Chianti, Chianti Classico
Classification: Reserve
Type: Red Wine
Variety: Sangiovese
Year/Vintage: 2004
Bottle Size: 750ml
Purchased: $13.99, PA Wine & Spirits, October, 2008
Date Logged: 11/9/2008
Pairing(s): Spaghetti, red sauce and meatballs
My Rating: 3-1/2 Stars

Nice. Perfect match for a hearty pasta dish like spaghetti and meatballs. A little red fruit mixed with great earthy and leathery undertones on the nose and palate. The acidity mixes well with tomato-based food, and I can see having this with pizza as well. Medium finish, with a nice mouth feel all the way through. Great value.

Wine Review: 2006 Domaine Saint Martin Bourgogne Blanc

Name: 2006 Domaine Saint Martin Bourgogne Blanc

Producer: Domaine Saint Martin

Region: France, Burgundy, Mâconnais, St. Véran

Classification: N/A

Type: White Wine

Variety: Chardonnay

Year/Vintage: 2006

Bottle Size: 750ml

Purchased: $13.99, Total Wine & More, February, 2008

Date Logged: 11/7/2008

Pairing(s): Greek Chicken Wraps

My Rating: 3-1/2 Stars

This was a very nice Chardonnay from the Mâconnais region of France. Very pale straw color in the glass, with a pleasant nose of grapefruit and peaches. Crisp and well balanced on the palate, with good peach, citrus and melon flavor components, and a little bit of mineral on the back end. The finish was a little short, and there was almost no detectable oak. The wine matched very nicely with some soft cheese and lemon-based chicken wraps, but it would also serve quite well as a nice summer sipping wine.

Wine Review: 2007 Gunn Estate Sauvignon Blanc

Name: 2007 Gunn Sauvignon Blanc
Producer: Gunn Estate
Region: New Zealand, Marlborough
Classification: N/A
Type: White Wine
Variety: Sauvignon Blanc
Year/Vintage: 2007
Bottle Size: 750ml
Purchased: $14.99, PA Wine Store, Oct. 2008
Date Logged: 11/2/2008
Pairing(s): Grilled Chicken Salad
My Rating: 2.5 Stars

This wine is loaded with fruit. Lots of apricots, peaches and pineapple on the nose. More of the same on the palate, with a good dose of honey sweetness, but balanced fairly well with some acidity on the mid-palate. This is a light drinking wine that definitely goes well with salads and chicken. A little pricy for an average wine. I think the Kim Crawford Sav Blanc is a slightly better wine and is generally $4-5 cheaper.

Wine Review: 2005 Le Pont Bandol

Name: 2005 Le Pont Bandol
Producer: Le Pont
Region: France, Provence, Bandol
Classification: N/A
Type: Red Wine
Variety: Mourvèdre, others (e.g., maybe Cinsault, Grenache)
Year/Vintage: 2005
Bottle Size: 750ml
Purchased: $14.99, Total Wine and More, Feb. 2008
Date Logged: 11/1/2008
Pairing(s): Pizza
My Rating: 3 Stars

Bandol vines are located in the hills between La Ciotat and Toulon, near Marseille, facing the Mediterranean Sea. Bandol is one of the oldest vineyards in France. The first vine was planted in Bandol 2,500 years ago by the Romans!

This wine had a nice garnet color in the glass. The nose was rather closed, with hints of spiciness – it smelled a little hot. The palet was noticeably spicy, with black pepper as well as green and red bell peppers. We had it with pizza and it actually complemented the peppers and pepperoni quite nicely. It was mildly tannic, and would hold up to a savory meat dish just as well. Medium finish.

Overall, a good food-friendly wine and a pretty nice value.

Wine Review: 2006 Valkenberg Zeller Schwarze Katz Riesling

Name: 2006 Valkenberg Zeller Schwarze Katz Riesling

Producer: P.J. Valkenberg

Region: Germany, Mosel, Zeller

Classification: N/A

Type: White Wine

Variety: Riesling

Year/Vintage: 2006

Bottle Size: 750ml

Purchased: $10.99, PA Wine Store, October 2008

Date Logged: 10/28/2008

Pairing(s): Asian Beef Stir Fry

My Rating: 3.5 Stars

This wine is a version of the famous Zeller Schwarze Katz, or Zeller’s "Black Cat." The legend goes that a black cat once chose the best wine during a tasting event long, long ago, by jumping on the barrel and clawing anyone that would come near.

We paired this version of the "black cat" with a mildly spicy beef stir fry. The light, fruity and sweet wine matched the medium heat of the stir fry perfectly. The wine had a nice, strong apple aroma, and the palate offered lots of apple and peach flavors, with smoke and mineral notes. The fruity sweetness is well balanced by clean acidity and a barely dry finish.

This is a very easy-drinking wine, and would pair well with just about any light meat or seafood dish, and would also be great with mild cheese or sour apples. At $10.99, it’s a great value.

Wine Review: 1995 Chateau Simard Saint-Emilion

Name: 1995 Chateau Simard Saint-Emilion

Producer: Chateau Simard

Region: France, Bordeaux, Saint-Emilion

Classification: N/A

Type: Red Wine

Variety: 70% Merlot/30% Cabernet Franc

Year/Vintage: 1995

Bottle Size: 750ml

Purchased: $27.99, PA Wine Store

Date Logged: 10/19/2008

Pairing(s): (1) Tomato pasta, (2) BBQ pork ribs

My Rating: 4 stars

This wine is one of the few affordable Saint-Emilion wines that the PA Wine Store routinely carries (if you can call $28 affordable). Neither of the pairings we drank this with were quite appropriate for this type of wine, but I have been wanting something old and complex lately, and this '95 sort of jumped out at me.

This is a nice wine. It is very complex, and has held up very well in the bottle. The tannins are strong but round, and the predominant flavor and aroma profiles are earthy and smoky, with a little bit of dirty laundry funkiness thrown in for good measure. The aroma reminds you of a forest floor and a campfire, and the taste brings to mind mushrooms and chocolate, with some spicy clove and black peppers in the finish. There's not a lot of fruit to speak of, although occasionally some black cherry would sneak in.

This is the kind of wine that definitely needs a steak or some kind of marinated grilled meat to be appreciated fully. The pork ribs worked better for us than the pasta, but in both cases I wasn't dissapointed in drinking such an interesting wine.

What We've Been Drinking

I had a few good wines lately that are worth having again. Two in particular, are the 2006 Villa Maria Gewurztraminer from New Zealand (3 stars, purchased $11.99 at PA Wine Store last October), and the 2006 Querceto Chianti Classico (3 stars, $13.99 at PA Wine Store this April). I paired the Gewurztraminer with both a spicy pasta as well as a chicken stir-fry, and it complemented both meals very well. We had the Chianti with pizza and Italian-style chicken & tomatoes, and both of these pairings were very good. Two good value wines worth seeking out again.

On the other hand, we had a 2004 Chateau de la Charriere, Clos Rousseau from the Santenay appelation of Burgundy (two stars, $27.99 from Total Wine and More this February). We paired it with barbeque grilled pork. Although not a bad wine, I didn't feel it delivered quite the experience that the two wines above did at half the price or less, so it was a loser on the value scale. Did I mention that it was an Alfio Moriconi selection (see previous dissapointments for this line)?

Wine Review: Erath 2006 Oregon Pinot Noir

Name: Erath 2006 Oregon Pinot Noir
Producer: Erath Vinyards
Region: USA, Oregon, 90.3% Willamette Valley, 9.7% Umpqua
Classification: N/A
Type: Red Wine
Variety: Pinot Noir
Year/Vintage: 2006
Bottle Size: 750ml
Purchased: $18.89, Fresh Market Food Store, March, 2008
Date Logged: 08/29/2008
Pairing(s): Grilled pork chops with Dijon baked potatoes
My Rating: 4 stars

Erath is a small producer in the Willamette Valley of Oregon that has been around since the late 1960s. They have 118 acres of vinyards, and purchase grapes from another 130 acres in Oregon. Almost two thirds of their wine is Pinot Noir, but they also produce Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and small amounts of Dry Riesling, Dry Gewürztraminer and Dolcetto. Erath produces three styles of Pinot Noir. The most affordable and first to be bottled and released each year is the 'Oregon', which is what I had here.

This wine is everything that I look for in a good American Pinot. It has a super light color that borders on pinkish. The nose is very floral, fruity, and non-French, with hints of cranberries, cherries and almost every conceivable red berry. The taste is fruit forward with very mild tannins and a little earthiness, spice and a hint of oak on the mid-length finish. The wine had a really nice silky feel in the mouth, and seemed about as fresh and aromatic as any wine I have had in recent memory.

We had this with pork chops and Dijon potatoes, and the pairing was perfect. I could also see having this with grilled salmon or grilled chicken salad. At less than 20 bucks, I think this wine is a great value and really worth having again. I logged its overall quality at 4 out of 5 stars.

Wine Review: 2006 Jaffelin Mercurey Pinot Noir

Name: 2006 Jaffelin Mercurey 1er Cru Le Clos L’Eveque
Producer: Roger Jaffelin
Region: France, Burgundy, Côte Chalonnaise, Mercurey 1er Cru
Classification: Grand Vin de Bourgogne
Type: Red Wine
Variety: Pinot Noir
Year/Vintage: 2006
Bottle Size: 750ml
Purchased: $22.99, Total Wine & More, February, 2008
Date Logged: 08/10/2008
Pairing: Grilled Pork Loin
My Rating: 3-1/2 Stars

This is what I want from a wine like this… delicious, fresh, moderate complexity, a little funkiness and a lot of fruit. A very well-balanced wine that is drinking very well right now. Moderate tannins on the back end, so it may stick around for a few years as well. Paired superbly with grilled pork loin, but is also a pleasant sipping wine as well. Beautiful light ruby color in the glass, and a nose that is loaded with fruit and forest aromas. We thought that this was slightly better than a 2005 Pernand-vergelesses we had a few months ago from the same producer.

$10 Value Contest: Chile versus Australia

Recently we had two "cheap" wines which turned out to be on complete opposite ends of the value spectrum. Other than the price, these two wines didn't have much in common, so it isn't fair to either one of these wines to compare them in a head-to-head competition. It is interesting, nevertheless, to just compare the bang for the buck aspect of these two wines.

First, on the high-side of the value curve, we had a Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile (2006 BrisAndes from Domaines Baron de Rothschild (Lafite), from the Colchagua Valley of Chile). We paid about $10 for it earlier this year at Total Wine and More in Delaware. With its French heritage backing by Lafite, I expected it to be a good effort, and was not disappointed. In fact, I was surprised at how good this wine actually was. It drank very much like a more expensive wine from Medoc, except a little more fruit-forward. It had a full flavor profile, with nice dark fruit, spice and chocolate tones. Very pleasing weight and finish, and paired perfectly with a grilled steak.

On the other end of the spectrum is the 2002 Jacob's Creek Reserve Chardonnay from South Australia. Another $10 purchase, but that was several years ago, so a more recent vintage today is probably a dollar or two more expensive. I probably should handicap the wine a little since it has been in the cellar a little longer than a $10 chardonnay should, but my guess is that this wasn't a very good wine even in 2002. The primary problem was oak - this wine tasted like I inhaled while I was standing in a saw mill. We had this wine with a light grilled chicken salad. At first I thought I would grow to like it, but the oak just completely overshadowed any potential good elements of the wine, not to mention the food. We ended the meal with nearly a half-bottle left, which is a rarity at our table.

So, that's the problem with wine...or maybe what's cool about wine. Two bottles for the same price, one I could drink every night, the other I don't care to ever have again.

Wine Review: 2006 Domaine Pascal Bouchard Petit Chablis

Name: 2006 Domaine Pascal Bouchard Petit Chablis
Producer: Domaine Pascal Bouchard
Region: France, Burgundy, Chablis
Classification: N/A
Type: White Wine
Variety: Chardonnay
Year/Vintage: 2006
Bottle Size: 750ml
Purchased: $17.99 Total Wine and More
Date Logged: 07/25/2008
Pairing(s): Seafood Pasta in Lemon and Olive Oil
My Rating: 3 Stars

This is classic Chablis, with plenty of green apple, citrus and mineral overtones. It had a long finish with a nice acidity. Perfect match with shrimp and scallops. Although it is very good, though, it wasn’t knock-your-socks-off good nor particularly memorable, and I’m not sure if it held its value up with the $18 price tag.