Try this Wine

Try this Wine: Make Merlot Great Again

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Credit: giphy.com

“I am not drinking any fucking merlot!” That’s a line shouted by a character named Miles, played by Paul Giamatti, in the exceptional Hollywood movie Sideways, a movie which came out around the time merlot sales began to tank in America. Because merlot bashing was a persistent storyline throughout the movie, many people believe it was responsible for merlot’s commercial failings.

While the movie condemned merlot, it promoted pinot noir in a parallel storyline. “Why are you so into pinot? It’s like a thing with you,” Miles’ love interest asked him mid-movie. He responded with a long, thoughtful answer that ends with “it’s flavors are the most haunting and brilliant, thrilling and subtle…” Sideways also came out around the time that pinot noir sales began to sky rocket.

“Merlot sales had nothing to do with Sideways,” winemaker Chris Carpenter told me not that long ago. Among many great wines like Lokoya and Cardinale that he makes, Chris makes some of the very best merlot. “It had everything to do with a lot of bad merlot being made at the time, and an over-investment in bad merlot vineyards by the industry in the decade or so leading up to Sideways.”

Chris and I were discussing merlot for an upcoming Good Vitis piece on the variety. The first (and only) wine I’ve made myself, from scratch, was a merlot. My mom’s go-to wine when I lived at home was merlot. And it’s a key contributor to many of my favorite red blends. Though it’s never been my favorite variety on its own, I do think that it gets an unfortunate shake these days and I wanted to understand why. Hence the upcoming piece focused on merlot.

Adam Lee, who I’ve written about in these pages before, has been producing pinot noir in California for decades, and I asked him what he thought of the Sideways theory. “I don’t buy it, but I’m not sure why,” he said. The more he thought about it, the more he saw parallels to what happened to merlot before Sideways and what happened to pinot noir after Sideways. “It’s true that a lot of bad merlot was being made in the 90s, so when Sideways came out there was a lot to hate about merlot,” he said.

“When Sideways came out, the current pinot releases were 2003 and 2004, both bad vintages in my opinion. They were very warm and we had big, ripe wines that were out of character. People who were supposed to like merlot because it was being made big and ripe, and hadn’t had pinot before, went nuts for the 03’s and 04’s, and in the subsequent years many wineries mainstreamed that big, jammy style, and it’s still around.”

Chris and Adam are two of many who I’m talking with for research on the merlot piece, so more on that in the future. In the lead up to that article, though, I want to suggest that people take another swing at merlot because it’s a great grape. One of the ironically hilarious nuggets of Sideways is that the pinnacle wine for Miles is Cheval Blanc, a wine from Saint Emilion in Bordeaux that is a predominantly merlot blend and among the most highly respected and sought-after wines in the world. The 2016 vintage, which retails for around $750 per bottle and received lavish praise from all the big critics, is 59.5% merlot.

The fact is that some of the most esteemed wines in the world have substantial portions of merlot in them, while many winemakers rely on merlot to make their best cabernet sauvignon. Though far more popular than merlot, cabernet sauvignon makes a less complete wine than merlot on its own. If not grown exceptionally well, cabernet feels like a donut in your mouth: substantial around the sides with a hole in the middle. Merlot fills that hole, and brings some nice flavors to the party as well. If I’m given the choice between a 100% cabernet and 100% merlot of equal caliber, I’m going with the merlot every time.

If I can motivate a few people to give merlot another try, then I’m going big with my pick: I want to suggest a bottle made by Chris Carpenter at the Mt. Brave Winery in California, which uses fruit from Mt. Veeder, a particularly great mountain site to grow red Bordeaux varieties.

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Mt. Brave’s vineyards on Mt. Veeder. Credit: Mt. Brave Wines

The 2015 Mt. Brave Merlot isn’t cheap at its $80 retail price, but it is worth it. You can find it for as low as $65 on wine-searcher.com (scroll to the bottom for some options). It is a substantial wine with layer upon layer of complexity. Give it a good two to three hours in the decanter now and it’ll sing for the following two days. This makes it contemplative wine as well, meaning that if you can nurse small pours over a long time and think about what you’re smelling and tasting throughout, then you’ll go through an intellectual exercise that demonstrates why wine can be magical: it’s a performance art just like ballet or an orchestra. It moves, it sings and it dances. Try this wine because merlot can be great, and this one is.

Tasting note:

What a killer, earthy and penetrating nose: sour cherry, strawberry, mesquite charcoal, bitter cocoa, sawdust and emulsified dandelion. It’s full bodied in a way that fills the palate, but the acid is juicy and alive and prevents the wine from settling and becoming cloying. The tannins are fine and focused. The fruit is beautifully layered, with muddled cherry, mountain strawberry and boysenberry that go for ages, and are followed by ground espresso and cocoa beans and graphite. The tail end of the flavor profile features tanned leather, tobacco leaf and a small dose of menthol. This does very well with a couple of hours in the decanter, but I imagine it can go through tremendous evolution over a decade or so. 94 points, value: B+.

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Where it buy:

You can order it winery direct here for $80. Check out wine-searcher.com for where to find it in your area, including stores that will ship to you. Below are a few shops around the country that carry it.

Fort Lauderdale, FL: Your Wine Cellars

Chicago, IL: Flickinger Wines

Greater Boston, MA: Wollaston Wine & Spirits

Wayne, NJ: Gary’s Wine & Marketplace

Bend, OR: RHC Selections

Nashville, TN: Cana Wine Company

 

 

Try this Wine: Cava from Vilarnau

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The corks and closures of two very nice bottles of Cava from Vilarnau

When I was 22 years old, I went to Barcelona for 3 months to study Spanish. I had recently graduate college and worked on a political campaign that exhausted me, and the idea of going somewhere new for a while was exciting. While I was already into wine at that age, it wasn’t a passion or fixation like it has become. And so unfortunately, I didn’t take advantage of my close proximity while in Barcelona to the various nearby wine regions, the most well-known of which are Catalunya, Priorat and Montsant, to visit them.

That didn’t stop me, however, from drinking wine while I was there. My favorite bar, which unfortunately no longer exists, was called El Bigoté (the mustache). The bar, just one big, open room, had no tables or chairs, though it had a 6-inch-wide bar that wrapped around roughly half of the walls. For a small number of euros, you were able to purchase a big plate of a single type of fried tapa and a bottle of Cava, white or rosé, your choice. Cava is a sparkling wine made in Penedès, a wine region to Barcelona’s south. They didn’t sell the tapas or Cava separately, you had to get an order of each together.

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Penedés. Credit: winetraveler.com

We spent many a night at El Bigoté, and that is where my head still often goes when I think of sparkling wine even though I drink remarkably little Cava these days. Though I will always be drawn to Champagne, my go-to has become crémant, which is a term now used generally for sparkling wine that comes from places in France that aren’t Champagne. The Burgundy and Loire regions are where my favorite crémant is made.

Part of the reason I drink so little Cava is that it is hard to find good Cava on the shelves of grocery stores and most wine merchants. This is why I was excited when I was offered the two wines I’m about to introduce as samples. I’ll never turn down an opportunity to try Cava in the hopes of it stirring some great memories from El Bigoté. That said, when they arrived and I saw how they are labeled, I got a pit in my stomach and thought, ‘another two bottles of Cava that play to the party crowd aren’t likely to be very good.’

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The Gaudí-inspired labels. Credit: aboutmygeneration.com

I’ve since tried the wine. I still don’t like the labels because they suggest that the wine is made for parties (even though they are inspired by Barcelona’s own Antoni Gaudí), for passively chugging alcohol while dancing in the club on New Year’s Eve, music thumping away. But I like the wine. It’s serious, it’s seriously good, and I think it’s great wine to recommend for someone who wants to try good Cava, or any type of sparkling wine, without spending a lot of money.

Vilarnau describes itself as “a small, artisan and cutting-edge cava winery [near] Barcelona.” The Vilarnau family was Spanish nobility in the 12th Century, and settled in Penedés. While Cava was made long before 1949 on the property, that’s when it was first labeled and marketed. In 1982 the González Bypass family of wines bought the label, and a new winery was built in 2005. Such a long history in the region does help explain why they are a producer of serious and thoughtful Cava. If you can get by the packaging (which didn’t photograph well enough to be featured in this post), or can find the regularly labeled bottle, the wine is worth trying.

The non-vintage Vilarnau Brut Reserva retails for $14.99 and is comprised of 50% macebeo, 35% parallada and 15% xarel.lo grapes. The nose is quite a lovely tropical and floral show featuring honeyed papaya, honeysuckle, straw, yellow peach and sweet lees. It is full bodied and very spritzy, which shows off well a tasteful amount of sweetness. Meyer lemon curd, marzipan and green apple are accentuated by a peppery spice. 90 points, value A.

The non-vintage Vilarnau Brut Reserva Rosé has an engaging nose that is quite ripe and mineral driven with raspberry, lavender, cider and lees. Also full bodied, the palate has a nice balance between creaminess, slight sweetness and crisp, round acid. Flavors are a wild mix of kiwi, watermelon, strawberry, lime, slate minerality and white pepper. 91 points, value A.

Where to buy:

The Gaudí edition may no longer be on shelves (if you’re lucky), but these places are listing availability of the standard labeled bottles.

Brut Reserva:

Sacramento, CA: The Wine Consultant

Colorado Springs, CO: Downtown Fine Spirits & Wine

Springfield, IL: The Corkscrew

New York, NY: Sherry-Lehmann

Harrisburg, PA: PA Liquor Control Board

Dallas, TX: Pogo’s Wine

 

Brut Reserva Rosé:

Westport, CT: International Wine Shop

Newton, MA: Marty’s

Hopkins, MN: Ace Wine, Spirits & Beer

New York, NY: 67 Wine & Spirits

Hilton Head, SC: Rollers Spirits, Wine & Cheese

Try this Wine: Oregon Viognier

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It’s January, the dead of winter, and so naturally we’re recommending a viognier! On a cold, crisp night, try a cold, crisp wine. I digress. I have a love-hate relationship with viognier. Mostly hate, actually. Living in Virginia, we have a lot of it around here and frankly, most of it is bad. If you read the 2018 Tastemakers article from a few weeks ago, you got a glimpse into why I feel that way. In short, a former governor thought it would be a good idea to effectively crown it the state grape when it’s very poorly suited for our often wet and cold climate. This led to a lot of planting and production, and we now have a lot of it.

The flip side is that, when viognier is good, there’s nothing quite like it, and I love it. Viognier is a relatively low acid white grape, but a lot of the higher quality viognier manages to still somehow pair really well with a wide range of food (acid is considered key to good food wine). The world’s most famous and coveted viognier comes from an appellation in France’s Rhone Valley called Condrieu, which is quite small (around 330 acres of vineyards). Condrieu viognier is known for being structurally rich and oily while delivering vibrant minerality, tropical and floral notes. The concentrated wine attracts a small but loyal following that, combined the small amount produced, means prices start at around $40 and go north of $100 with ease.

A few other spots around the world have figured out how to make good viognier as well. Australia, Washington State, South Africa, Argentina and Chile are probably the best known outside France. While each produces a different version of viognier, none fit the Condrieu mold in terms of that oily feeling and concentration. One place that isn’t making much viognier at all is Oregon State, but that’s where I go for my benchmark bottle of the variety.

Before I introduce the wine, I need to say that I don’t love most viognier. It’s very hard to find one for less than $25 that has unique personality, and that’s a turn off. Once in a while I love a big Condrieu, but other than that there’s only one viognier I look forward to having every time: the one from Oregon’s Penner-Ash Wine Cellars.

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Tasting with Lynn Penner-Ash in the summer of 2018

I first had Penner-Ash’s viognier in 2015 at my inaugural visit to the winery. I remember wondering whether they had poured me the right wine. Yes, it had those quintessential tropical, vanilla and honeysuckle flavors that viognier is known for, but the acid was unusually spry and formed a spine that I hadn’t experienced in any viognier prior. It had finesse. I realized I could enjoy more than one glass. Since then, it’s become my standard for domestic viognier, my favorite bottle of the variety, and one I enjoy whether I have food with it or not.

Viognier should have a lushness to it, but too often it’s produced to the point of opulence, which is a mistake as the variety easily slides into flabby territory if not restrained before it enters that zone. Viognier can have trouble putting on enough acid to be interesting, even under the attentive watch of the winemaker. This makes the winemaker’s role a necessary but insufficient part of achieving nice acid. What has made Penner-Ash’s viognier the standard for me is that Lynn Penner-Ash, the winemaker, gets the right levels of acid and body restraint, and finds a nice balance, every year.

The 2017 vintage is just killer. The nose offers sharp and precise mineral, chalk and citrus zest on first sniff. Breath deeper and you’ll get light tropics and florals. It smells like a cool climate viognier. On the palate it is similarly influenced by a cool climate. Medium in weight with none of the more typical oiliness and fleshiness of warmer climate vio, the acid runs the full length of the palate, remaining sharp and crisp throughout. It almost tickles the tongue. The flavors run deep, delivering sweet lemon and lime, banana leaf, lychee, rich vanilla custard and whispy white pepper. 93 points. Value: A.

For a deeper look at Penner-Ash, check out this report from our visit there last summer.

Where to buy:

You can get it through the winery, or from a number of places around the country. A few are listed below.

Bay Area, California: Solano Cellars, 1580 #B Solano Avenue, Albany, CA. 510-525-9463.

Chicago, Illinois: Vin Chicago, multiple locations.

Minneapolis, Minnesota: Ace Wine & Spirits, 4 Shady Oak Road #18, Hopkins, MN 55343. 952-960-8014.

New Jersey: Wine Works, 319 West Route 70, Marlton, NJ 08053. 856-596-3330.

West Hartford, Connecticut: Maximum Beverage, 333 North Main Street, West Hartford, CT 06117. 860-761-2541.

Try this Wine: Château Peybonhomme-les Tours Le Blanc Bonhomme

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GV THANKSGIVING WINE RECOMMENDATION

When we hear Bordeaux, we tend to think about red wine. Complex, expensive, historic red wine. A walk down the Bordeaux isle at your local wine store is likely to confirm this reaction, although you might spy a few smaller and perhaps even more expensive bottles filled with a golden-hewed nectar called Sauternes at one end. But if you look closely, you may also find some full-sized bottles of white Bordeaux wine. If they’re there, chances are they are worth trying.

White wine production in Bordeaux is roughly 8% of total wine made in the region. Perhaps counter-intuitively, this small production level boosts the quality. Because demand for white wine is less than red, and because vineyard acreage iS incredibly expensive in Bordeaux (try $400,000 per acre for the decent stuff – no joke), white grapes are in the significant minority. Those wineries that do choose to produce whites, then, usually have a reason for doing it: it’s good, and they’re proud of it.

If Burgundy, France’s other elite wine region, is the world’s standard for singe variety wine (pinot noir and chardonnay), Bordeaux is the global standard for blended wines (with apologies to the Rhone Valley). Its reds are blended from a selection of the legally permissible grapes: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, petit verdot, malbec and carménère. For whites, the list is half the length: sauvignon blanc, sémillon and muscadelle. Okay, the list is actually longer, but the others (colombard, ugni blanc, etc.) make up just 3% of total white production.

Depending on where a wine is made within Bordeaux, it is usually dominated either by sauvignon blanc or sémillon. Muscadelle, when present, plays the minor role. Sauvignon blanc and sémillon produce very, very different wines and one could easily be thrown off by the thought of blending them. Sauvignon blanc is higher in acid, leaner and driven more by citrus, green cover (grass and herbs) and minerality. It’s “sweet” flavors (the wine is completely dry) are unbaked – think honey or honeysuckle. Conversely, sémillon is lower in acid, creamier and driven by warm baked and spiced sweet flavors like apple pie, créme brûlée and lemon curd, with orange peel and ginger accents.

Most white Bordeaux is made with significantly more sauvignon blanc than sémillon. You get all the lovely citrusy acid and herbal goodness from the sauvignon blanc while the sémillon’s creaminess smooths out the rough edges and warms the flavors a bit. This is the profile you’re most likely to find in the grocery store, and it’s tasty. On the rare occasion that you find one priced above $25, you start to enter territory in which the wine benefits from a few years in bottle. The very best stuff, priced in the hundreds, demands half a decade, at least. But most white Bordeaux is priced very reasonably and is ready to drink within a year of being bottled.

One of these very reasonably priced wines is the 2016 Château Peybonhomme-les-Tours le blanc Bonhomme, which is a 50/50 blend of sauvignon blanc and sémillon. The Château is located on top of a hill in the village of Cars on the right bank of the Gironde river. The  Hubert family has tended to the vineyards, which spread out over a 158 acre property, for six generations. The vineyards also happen to be certified biodynamic. A bit off the beaten path, it’s a wine worth seeking out. It’s one of the best white wines I’ve had this year under $30. It would be right at home on holiday tables with rich fish dishes, roasted chicken, roasted vegetables and foie gras.

Tasting note: Gave this half an hour decant, and the nose really blossomed. Loads of endearing honeysuckle, orchid, mashed pear, rich lemon curd and candied orange peel. Very lovely nose. The palate is medium-bodied and round with edges that are just ever so gritty, which enhances texture. The acid is nicely cut. Flavors hit close to the nose: honeysuckle, a big hit of pear, apricot and orange peel plus some great slate minerality and a brief hit of cream. A very impressive wine. 91 points. Value: A.

Where to buy:

Here’s where it gets tricky. Unless you live in New York or expect to find yourself there soon, you need to order this one online. The only reason I’m comfortable running this wine as a Try this Wine is because the two stores offering it are fantastic, and this wine is good enough to be a worthy excuse to spend half an hour on either store’s website and place an order for a number of great wines. The two stores:

Astor Wines, De Vinne Press Building, 399 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10003.
212-674-7500.

Chamber Street Wines. 148 Chambers Street, New York, NY 10007. 212-227-1434.

 

 

 

Try this Wine: Melville Estate Syrah

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Credit: winery-sage.com

Syrah may be one of the most misunderstood – or perhaps confusing – red wines out there. Unlike cabernet or merlot, there is very little syrah produced domestically outside two buckets: mass-produced, sub $15 wines, and small production, high end bottles starting around $40 and going into the hundreds. The quality and style of these two buckets differ dramatically, and so it can be challenging to feel like you “get” the grape.

This is somewhat less true in France, where the Rhone Valley is syrah’s global epicenter and quality is not hard to come by at any price, but French wine labels are challenging for Americans because they usually do not list the grape(s) included in the wine and so they contribute to America’s misunderstanding of syrah. It is also less true in Australia, where syrah is called “shiraz” and is the most widely produced wine. However, because it’s labeled shiraz even when sold in the United State, it’s easily confused as something different, either varietally or stylistically, from syrah produced elsewhere. And thus the misunderstanding continues.

Syrah is not the most popular grape in this country, but its popularity is growing. On the production side, there are 106,00 acres of chardonnay grown in the United States, making it the most widely-grown wine-making grape in the country. Cabernet sauvignon isn’t far behind at 101,300 acres. Syrah sits at just over 22,000, which makes it the sixth most grown wine-making grape in America.

Syrah can be grown in different climates, and wears its terroir on its sleeve. In warmer climates, it is often big, round and fruit-forward. Most of the lower-end syrah tends to fall into this style because it’s relatively easy to make on a large scale with a good price margin. In cooler climates, it is gamey and savory and often smells and tastes of smoked or cured meat, iron and olives. This style is found most commonly in the more expensive category as it is more sought-after and costlier to produce than the other style. These dynamics mean that, depending on what one is spending, they are getting dramatically different experiences in terms of flavor profile, not just quality.

Within the premium wine world, syrah has been a stalwart regarded as a macro-level under-performer in that it hasn’t sold well despite its appeal. Syrah is also a very difficult sell because either the less expensive forward-style often smacks of generic red wine and makes no unique appeal, or a person is unaccustomed to, and perhaps initially turned off by, the savory taste and higher price point of the better quality stuff.

The niche appeal of high end syrah tends to emanate from that uniquely savory profile I described as well as its ability to change dramatically with extended aging. This has motivated articles along the lines of “American Syrah: Can It Ever Rival Pinot Noir?” that discuss and attempt to prognosticate syrah’s future.

Part of the tailwind pushing syrah lovers’ desire to see the variety perform better may be that we believe syrah offers bang for the buck, even at the high end, and that while it’s easy to find an underwhelming expensive cabernet or pinot noir, it’s much harder to be disappointed by an expensive syrah. This is at least something I’ve discovered as I’ve talked with other syrah lovers.

To test this out, I went to Wine Enthusiast and pulled review data for syrah, cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir and merlot. I took this data and put together pie charts for each variety that show the breakdown of scores. Looking at the charts, for example, 2.83% of merlots reviewed by Wine Enthusiast received scores between 94 and 97 points (the orange slice on the graph).

To interpret these charts, it’s critical to know the sample size, so here they are:

Syrah: 11,991

Merlot: 15,992

Pinot noir: 24,332

Cabernet sauvignon: 27,682

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These graphs tell me two things, effectively. First, with the caveat that this is the perspective of just one journal, there isn’t a lot of great merlot on the market as measured by review scores. That’s a discussion for another time. Second, with the same caveat as the first, people have roughly the same chance of getting an enjoyable/satisfying bottle of syrah as they would cabernet or pinot if they were at a quality wine store that stocked roughly equal amounts of all three. This is to say, my friends and I may be wrong about there being a glut of high quality syrah relative to more popular reds.

All that said, it remains difficult to find a good syrah without dropping a good chunk of change, not unlike pinot noir, because wine stores stock much less of it than the more popular wines. Further, it remains difficult to find a savory syrah priced similar to the fruit-forward syrahs.

Melville

This edition of Try this Wine aims to shoot that gap as reasonably as possible with the 2014 Melville Estate Syrah from the Santa Rita Hills AVA in Santa Barbara, California. After trying a bottle ourselves for the first time, we were motivated to write this piece because we believe everyone should experience the uniquely savory profile of quality syrah at least once, and now have a reasonably priced example to recommend.

Melville is legendary Santa Barbara, a wine region that deserves more attention and respect than it gets. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is eventually considered part of California’s top echelon of wine regions. Located a short drive north of the Los Angeles area, it sits just off the Pacific Ocean on plateaus and hill sides that jut up from the coast line. Direct access to ocean breezes keep the area cool, and much of the wine produced there skews more reserved and nuanced than the standard California reputation. Think producers like Au Bon Climat, Ojai, Donkey and Goat, Qupe and Jaffurs, none of whom are going to make inroads with the jammy wine crowd.

Try this Wine because: The Estate syrah from Melville clocks in around $30-35, which is a fair price for the quality. At this price you get great accessibility to the savory profile as well as good approachability – it won’t require aging to show itself off. While not as layered and complex as many more expensive syrahs, it represents one of the more modest price points for a wine of its profile and quality. We recommend that you try this wine if you want to access the savory syrah profile without spending a ton of money or waiting years for a bottle to develop into an enjoyable stage.

Tasting note for the 2014 Melville Estate syrah: Bright, shiny nose of Acai, raspberry, strawberry, wet soil, tanned tobacco leaf, bacon and cinnamon. It’s full bodied with pleasant, mellowed acidity and very plush tannin, striking a pleasing feel and structure. The flavors are predominantly savory and salty; the fruit is secondary. It offers doses of iron, saline, smoked beef jerky, black olive, pomegranate, raspberry and licorice. This is a nice, straight-forward New World syrah with some Old World stylings. There is a small amount of dusty tannin towards the finish suggesting good mid-term drinking. 90 points. Value: B+.

Where to buy:

The current release of the Estate syrah at the winery is 2016, which is available directly through the winery. Most of the vintages available in stores include the 2014 and 2015, which is nice because of the additional and complimentary age on them. Here are a few shops around the country that showed up on the wine-searcher.com search.

St. Louis, MO: Wine & Cheese Place, 7435 Forsyth Blvd, Clayton, MO 63105. Phone: 314-727-8788.

Los Angeles, CA: Woodland Hills Wine Company, 22622 Ventura Blvd, Woodland Hills, CA 91364. Phone: 800-678-9463.

Tampa, FL: Craft & Curd, 2908 W Gandy Blvd. Suite B, Tampa, FL 33611. Email: Tom@craftcurd.com.

St. Paul, MN: Sunfish Cellars, 981 Sibley Memorial Hwy, 55118 St Paul, MN. Phone: 651-600-5164.

San Francisco, CA: The Wine Club, 953 Harrison St, San Francisco, CA 94107. Phone: 800-966-7835.

Try this Wine: Palacios Corullón Bierzo mencía

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Alavaro Palacios in one of his vineyards. Picture credit: Rare Wine Company.

A number of years ago, I read an article about a “new old” wine region in Spain called Bierzo, located north of Portugal along the route of El Camino de Santiago, Christianity’s most famous pilgrimage. I wish I could remember which article it was, though the general essence has remained deeply ingrained in my mind. First, the signature red grape there is called mencía. Second, the vines, most of which grow on very steep hillsides, can be a century old. Third, Bierzo as a region and mencía as a grape had both been forgotten by the wine world for decades until the 1990s. And forth, this was a shame because both had a lot to offer wine lovers.

That was enough to motivate me to seek out Bierzo mencía. I found my way to a bottle by a producer named Descendientes de José Palacios called Pétalos, which is a field blend from the western part of the region that costs around $25. I recognized the name Palacios as one widely credited for helping Priorat rise to its current status as a unique wine region of high quality. Further, its winemaker, Alvaro Palacios, comes from Rioja’s esteemed Bodegas Palacios Remondo family. The Pétalos seemed like a good entry to Bierzo.

Man, was it good. While not particularly heavy, it had daunting depth at its pricepoint and a combination of flavors and aromas I had not experienced: spicy red fruit, loads of purply florals, wet underbrush, licorice and a mild pepper finish. Further, the structure was mesmerizing. It had significant tannin, but that tannin was so finely grained and consistent that it didn’t obstruct any other element of the wine, including the precise acid. Most Spanish wine is known, among other things, for its boldness. With perhaps the exception of Rioja, Bierzo offers an elegant, feminine alternative to the country’s more famous regions.

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The winery. Picture credit: Rubén Bescos.

If the Pétalos was Palacios’s entry point, I figured their more pricy bottles could be downright magical, and decided to purchase two bottles of the 2012 Descendientes de José Palacios Bierzo Villa de Corullón, the next step up in the Palacios line that costs around $45. Corullón is the village that Palacios chose as the epicenter of their effort in Bierzo. The most desirable vineyards and parcels go into more expensive single vineyard bottles, whereas the Villa de Corullón is a blend of three vineyards (with vines ranging from 60 to 100 years old). From what I had read, the Villa de Corullón was built for short to mid-term aging, and so I decided to open my first bottle five years after its vintage.

One of the reasons I like to purchase multiples of a wine I intend to age is to see how it develops over time. I consumed the first bottle in July of 2017, and had the second just last week (August 29, 2018). If I had any doubt of my approach, the difference that just a year made with this wine affirmed the rationale. While there were consistencies, there were also dramatic differences.

From July 2017: Holy florals, Batman! The nose is a flower store, a bit of everything, with crushed strawberries, cranberries, Sweet Tarts and tar. The body is medium in weight with juicy acidity. The fruit is a bit darker here, with overripe strawberries, cherries and boysenberries. There’s lovely violets and rose, along with creamsicle, although over time the flowers fade as cola and chocolate emerge. I really like this, and will be very interested to follow it over the next five-ish years.

And from August 2018: Such a gorgeous, elegant wine at a great stage on its life. The balance is impeccable. It’s identity just screams “pastel.” The nose and palate supremely balance florals and dark earthy notes: pink, purple and yellow flowers; wet top soil; graphite; and darkly tanned tobacco leaf. It also features mountain strawberry, blood orange, dark cherry and pomegranate seed. The fine grained tannins add pleasure to the mouthfeel, and the acid is in perfect balance. A truly impressive wine. Decent for an hour now, and consume over the next three years.

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The Villa de Corullón label. Picture credit: Wine.com.

Both were beautiful wines, though my preference went to the longer-aged bottle (I gave the younger bottle 93 points, and the older 95). I’ve spent considerable time thinking about what a comparable wine from elsewhere might be, and continue to come up empty. I’ve rarely found a wine like the Corullón that excels on all fronts: aroma, structure, balance, mouthfeel and flavor. It achieves the rare quality that is the benchmark I have for my favorite wines: the sum of the parts surpasses the quality their individual qualities.

Try this wine because: (1) it’s profile is highly unusual, if not definitionally unique (one of a kind), (2) it’s very reasonably priced for its quality, and (3) there is good availability of past vintages, which makes drinking it in its prime now a real possibility.

Where to buy:

Thankfully, this is not the hardest wine to find. The current release is 2015, but wine-searcher.com has store listings for eleven vintages. Two stores – Pluckemin Inn Wines in Bedminster, New Jersey and Wine & Liquor Warehouse in Canton, Connecticut – still have the 2012, which I profiled in this piece, available at great prices. The stores below, which represent a greater geographic dispersion, have the 2015 vintage. And, as always, you go to wine-searcher.com and enter your zip code and a radius to find the closest store. Click on this link to do that.

Central/Upstate New York: Saratoga Wine Exchange, 43 Round Lake Road Ste. 3, Ballston Lake NY 12019. 1 (518)-899-9463.

Mountain View, California: Artisan Wine Depot, 2482 W. El Camino Real, Mountain View California 94040. 1 (650) 917-8080.

Arlington, Virginia: Total Wine, 800 N. Glebe Rd, Arlington VA  22203. 1 (703) 516-2810

San Francisco, California: Flatiron Wine & Spirits, 2 New Montgomery St, San Francisco. California 94105. 415-780-1405.

Orlando, Florida: Total Wine, 4625 Millenia Plaza Way, Orlando Florida, 32839. (407) 352-6330.

Chicago area, Illinois: Vin Chicago, three locations (Highland Park, Chicago and Barrington)

Try this Wine: 2015 Hess Select North Coast Cabernet Sauvignon

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The 2015 Hess Select North Coast Cabernet Sauvignon is riding a strong commercial tailwind. It’s cabernet sauvignon, which is second in popularity only to chardonnay in America, and it’s from California, which dominates America’s wine production, store shelves (commercial demand) and exports. If one’s focus was on making wine that would sell easily and in large numbers, they’d make cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay in California.

If there’s a headwind against this wine, it’s that at a suggested retail of $19 it is too expensive for the mainstream (though I wouldn’t be surprised to find it for $12-15 in many grocery stores nation-wide). Even at $12, it’s outside the 78% of total domestic wine sales that come in under $10 per bottle. However, the tide is turning. In 2017, purchases of bottles priced $15-19.99 saw double-digit growth. Things were never down for the Hess Select cabernet sauvignon, but they are nonetheless looking up.

With so many Americans buying California cabernet sauvignon, this instance of Try this Wine aims to be a twofer. First, for those who regularly buy grocery store cabernet sauvignon, I’m hopefully drawing attention to a particular wine that over delivers. And second, for those who normally eschew under $20 cabernet sauvignon, I’m hopefully drawing attention to a wine that demonstrates real quality can be had for a lower-than-expected price that is also available in serious wine stores.

I visited Hess last December during an epic five days in Napa, not knowing much about the producer and walking in with a critically wrong assumption about them. Here’s a line from the post that I wrote about Hess:

“I had sort of assumed that because of its size, its quality and personality were going to be, um, uninspiring. After trying the samples, I knew the only ass in that assumption was me.”

Hess was awesome. A medium-sized producer, which by California standards is pretty large, they poured me nearly their entire range, beginning with several Select wines. The Select series is the winery’s entry point, and accounts for 65% of total Hess production, making it the company’s financial backbone. The series begins with the $12.99 Select chardonnay, and tops out around the $20 mark. We slowly climbed the ladder until reaching the top: the $185 Lion cabernet sauvignon. There wasn’t a bad wine in the bunch, and I found several to be inspiring. More than anything, though, I was impressed with the Select chardonnay because I was shocked that anyone could make a chardonnay of that quality that could retail for $12.99 – I’ve had many $25-30 chardonnays that are on all accounts no better than the Select.

I vividly remember asking Hess’ winemaker how they made such a good thirteen dollar wine and learning that they have vineyards dedicated to the Select line that get the same attention as their more prestigious vineyards, and an assistant winemaker who focuses on the Select line, giving it as much attention as the head winemaker does for the more expensive wines. Since then, I’ve included the chardonnay in several tastings I’ve led and talked it up on many occasions.

This is why it was fun to revisit the Select line with this cabernet sauvignon, which I received as a sample. They produce 175,000 cases of the Select cabernet, which represents 35% of the total Select series production. That’s serious quantity, so achieving equally serious quality is no small order, and rare at this scale. This alone is reason enough to try this wine.

Tasting note: This fresh, ripe nose gives off aromas of cherry and blackberry compote, toasted oak, potting soil, graphite minerality and blood orange zest. The body is very polished and lush, balanced nicely by good acidity that keeps it from becoming cloying or heavy. Flavors are focused the dark and juicy cherry and boysenberry, though tobacco, wet dirt and lavender peak through. 88 points. Value: A.

Where to buy:

This is a widely distributed wine – available in all fifty states and twenty-three countries outside America – and is available at serious wine stores, grocery stores and online retailers, including wine.com. Below are a few places where it is available. As always, you can head over to wine-searcher.com and input your zip code and a radius to find nearby stores.

Chicago area: Sal’s Beverage World with locations in Addison, Elmhurst and Villa Park.

Denver: Argonaut Wine & Liquor, 760 E. Colfax Ave, Denver CO 80203. 303-831-7788.

Florida: Crown Wine & Spirits, nine locations on the Pacific Coast.

Los Angeles: Wally’s Wine & Spirits, three locations.

Memphis: Buster’s Liquors, 191 South Highland, Memphis TN 38111. 901-458-0929.

New York: Garnet Wines & Liquors, 929 Lexington Ave, New York NY 10065. 212-772-3211.

Try this Wine: Hacienda Lopez de Haro Reserva 2013

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Bodega Classico Hacienda Lopez de Haro. Credit: Tadeja Kuzma via winedering.com.

Rioja is always three things in my book: remarkable value, better with age, and not for everyone. To be clear: it’s a lot more than that, or at least it can be. Rioja can be super complex. A traditional Rioja is generally leathery, savory, red fruited and retrained, while a new-style Rioja is generally sweetly dark fruited, baking spiced, plush and bold. Regardless of its style, though, it is remarkably priced for its quality, better with at least some age, and divisive among its audience.

As the world’s general palate has shifted towards preferring bigger wine, traditional Rioja is being produced less and less. Therefore, by default more people are experiencing it less and less. This is especially true for those Americans who haven’t had the chance to explore the region’s styles – most Rioja available on US store shelves is of the new world variety because it has wider appeal to the general American palate. Unless one seeks out the traditional style they are increasingly unlikely to stumble upon it accidentally. I would imagine that most people would like at least one or two Riojas; it just depends on the style and producer. (If you want to read more on the subject of Rioja styles, check out the Good Vitis post on The Wines of CVNE).

2013 Hecienda Lopez de Haro Reserva

We suggest trying a traditional Rioja if you haven’t (or think you haven’t) had one. One of the better values is Bodega Classica Hacienda Lopez de Haro. For a suggested retail price of $15.99, you can now get their 2013 Reserva. It’s a lot of wine for the price. It gets macerated for two weeks, spends twenty months in French and American oak barrels, and gets racked every few months while in oak. The vineyards that provide the tempranillo and graciano that go into the wine are in the heart of Rioja, enjoying expansive views of the Sierra de Cantabria mountains and Ebro river from a terraced spot.

The 2013 vintage, of which this bottle is a member, wasn’t stellar in Rioja, unfortunately. An unusually wet Spring delayed budding and led to unequal maturation of the grapes. A mild summer followed by good weather in September and October helped wineries salvage the harvest, though the spring damage couldn’t be entirely undone in the winery.

The difficult vintage is evident, though the Lopez de Haro crew have done well to produce an enjoyable wine worth trying. I suggest giving it at least an hour decant, if not two or three.

Tasting note: Dark, hedonistic nose of cherry, sweet tobacco, graphite and blackberry. Medium-bodied with saturating polished tannin and bright acidity that leans the wine out in the finish, it has a slight alcoholic kick that extended air resolves. The fruit is a bit tart initially, coming in the form of red cherry, cranberry and plum. Cigarette tobacco and tar lead into pepper on the back end. This will improve with a few years in the cellar. 88 points, value A.

Where to Buy

For those in the DC-Maryland-Virginia area, like Good Vitis, you can find the 2013 vintage at Calvert Woodley, 4339 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008. Phone: 202-966-4400.

If you’re in or visiting Central New York, you can find it at the Saratoga Wine Exchange, 43 Round Lake Road Ste. 3, Ballston Lake, NY 12019. Phone: 518-899-9463.

It’s also available at Gary’s Wine & Marketplace, which has five locations in New Jersey (Wayne, Madison, Bernardsville, Hillsborough and Closter).

For more locations and vintages, visit this wine-searcher.com link.

Try this Wine: 2015 Smith-Madrone Riesling

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Note: This is the inaugural edition of Try this Wine, a series we hope to make regular on the website. You can’t know more than you taste, and knowledge is what builds a palate, so exploration is key to developing an appreciation for wine. Each edition will spotlight a wine that we believe has, whether we happen to like it or not, a compelling reason or two for people to try. Some of the wines will be harder to find and/or more expensive than others, but the one theme that will be constant is our belief that the wines we feature will improve your appreciation for wine. At the bottom of each Try this Wine post, you’ll find a list of places to purchase the wine.

Most wine drinkers aren’t going to like the Smith-Madrone riesling because they don’t like riesling, or so they think. “It’s too sweet” is the variety’s reputation, and the industry hasn’t done much to help itself in this regard. People see the grape and think ‘sweet’ and there’s nothing, except the occasional demi-sec or sec label (which doesn’t mean anything to most people anyways) to clue them in to the reality. Smith-Madrone’s 2015 riesling carries 0.68% residual sugar, which is for all intents and purposes a dry wine. But you wouldn’t know it from the label.

The other thing you wouldn’t know from the label, unless you knew the winery’s reputation already, is how good it is. The rieslings with the most widespread and greatest reputations aren’t grown in the United States, but I’d put money on a few domestics to place well in a Judgment of Paris styled event in Alsace or Wachau. Good Vitis hosted a blind tasting of thirty-two American rieslings with a couple of esteemed wine professionals about a year ago. All of us were more impressed than we expected with the overall quality, and super impressed with a handful of them, including Smith-Madrone. Stu Smith, a General Partner and winemaker at Smith-Madrone, dropped in and tasted with us, nervously hoping his wine would show well. It did.

There are a couple of things that combine to make riesling a special grape like no other. The versatility of the grape is, I would argue, without peers. It can be grown in so many different soils and climates, it’s remarkable. It also picks up terrior as well as any grape, and better than most. Multiply its ability to grow in so many different places by its ability to represent each unique location and you end up with a massive range of differences. With its racy acid, focus and complexity, riesling is also an incredibly versatile and nimble partner of food. On top of that, it ages gracefully and for decades (when grown and made to do so). In the collateral sent with the Smith-Madrone sample, Stu writes that “we think this will have a lifespan of 20-30 years” and there’s no doubt that he is right. The best-made riesling in Germany and Austria is known to gain complexity over decades and decades. Stu’s been making riesling long enough to know, when he says his will go twenty to thirty years, that it will do so while improving.

When you have a really good riesling, it’s impossible to objectively say there is better wine in the world. The kicker is, the best riesling is outrageously cheap by the standard of any other variety that can come close to riesling’s quality. You have to search far and wide to find a riesling that will cost you, off the shelf, over $100, or even $50. For a third of that ($32), you can get the 2015 Smith-Madrone, and it just might be the best $32 white wine you’ll find, and a wine that’s far better than many other varieties costing significantly more.

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Some of Smith-Madrone’s vineyards. Picture credit: Pull That Cork.

They ferment it in stainless, and keep it there through clarification, aging and filtration. It’s 100% riesling that is kept from going through malolactic fermentation and gets no lees stirring. This is all to say, it’s really well-grown estate riesling from a really great mountain site that showcases terrior and talent. Stu boasts of “a proud history with this varietal, from our very first vintage. That 1977 vintage won the Riesling Competition of the 1979 Wine Olympics, a tasting organized in Paris by the food and wine guide Gault & Millau.” Bring on The Germans and Austrians.

Tasting note: What a wonderful nose with elevated florals, dried apricot, tangerine, wet stones, chalk, margarita salt and white peach. Medium in weight, the acid is racy with a lush texture. The ripe flavors hit on tangerine, yellow peach, lime, rhubarb and tobiko. The finish goes for ages. Another brilliant vintage of this stuff, the 2015 should have an excellent fifteen to twenty year lifespan, at least. 92 points, value A.

Where to Buy

The 2015 is still finding its way to shelves around the country. Smith-Madrone sells a lot of direct-to-consumer, and you can purchase this wine from them now. As this vintage gets distributed (there is often a lag time between winery release and completion of the distribution process), it should be available around the country in discerning wine stores. Right now, wine-searcher.com is listing only one store:

Truly Fine Wine, 4060 Morena Blvd., Ste K, San Diego, CA 92117. Phone: (858) 270-9463.

Direct from the producer: Smith-Madrone, 4022 Spring Mountain Road, St. Helena, CA 94574. Phone: 707.963.2283. (You can also call them to inquire about where you might find it locally).

You can find other locations for other vintages here.