Chateau de Lascaux 2001 Coteaux du Languedoc

Was feeling a little down this weekend due to a combination of winter blues, struggling to get over a head cold earlier this week, and facing too much work to do next week, so I asked myself, "Who are the experts on all things morose?" The French, of course! When you're wallowing, why not wallow with the experts? So I headed to the basement and picked out a bottle of French wine from my collection. I only have 4-5 red French wines, so it wasn't too much of a difficult choice. I picked this bottle because I've had it for awhile and I vaguely recalled that it was moderately priced, and I must say that it fit my mood perfectly. Homey and comforting, not overly aggressive, it was a good wine to sip while watching the Food Network and pondering the universe.

Chateau de Lascaux, 2001 Coteaux du Languedoc
Country of origin: France
Region: Coteaux du Languedoc (centered around the city Montpellier in Southern France and extending from Narbonne in the west to the edge of Camargue in the east and up to the Cévennes mountains)

Stats: A blend of syrah, grenache, and mourvedre. Ratios unknown for this vintage.
Cost: Probably around $20. I bought it at Morgan & York (formerly the Big Ten Market) in Ann Arbor, MI sometime in 2003-2005.

Appearance: Lovely deep garnet. Not overly dark.
Aroma: Complex nose of black cherries, black currant, and strawberries with a finishing note of vanilla & toasted coconut. There was a hint of chalk when I first opened the bottle, but that had disappeared by the next day.
Taste: Smooth and mild. Mellow fruit forward in the beginning and finishing with just a hint of tannins. Very nice sipper by itself, but would get overpowered by strong tasting food.

Wish I had bought more than one bottle, as this is just the wine to break the winter doldrums and get you day-dreaming about walking through the hills of Southern France.

Salute,
a Wine Student

King Family Vineyards "Michael Shaps" 2005 Monticello Viognier

For Valentines Day, I ended up working from home while I oversaw some home remodeling projects. That also gave me some time to run up the street to our local seafood store and buy some local Cape Cod bay scallops for dinner. I'd like to say I had dinner on the table by the time my wife got home from work, but the truth is it took longer to make than I anticipated. But we eventually sat down to a wonderful meal of Bourbon Bacon-wrapped Scallops, asparagus spears, and sun-dried tomato risotto. To go with the meal, I chose a bottle of "Michael Shaps" 2005 Monticello Viognier from King Family Vineyards. What a delightful choice!

As you might guess from the name, this wine is from Virginia. King Family Vineyards is located just outside of Crozet, VA which is about 20 miles down the road from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Charlottesville. We stopped by the winery on the way home for the Outer Banks in North Carolina. I was trying to get to Monticello to take a tour of the estate, but we didn't arrive until 30 minutes before closing. Fortunately, there are a number of Virginia wineries in the area, so we availed ourselves of their hospitality. King Family Vineyards had been written up in a recent Wine Spectator article, so we made that our final destination. Believe me, this is a place to go to admire people with money. The winery is set on the edge of a huge horse farm and no expense was spared in its construction. Very beautiful setting. A shame it was a chilly day and we couldn't sit on the patio to admire the view while sipping a glass of wine.

"Michael Shaps" 2005 Monticello Viognier
Appealation: Monticello, Virginia
Cost: roughly $25
Appearance: Very delicate clear yellow. Almost colorless
Aroma: Apricots, pineapple, and kiwi (my wife thinks I'm dreaming about the last one, but I swear I smell kiwi)
Taste: Full bodied. Burst of apricots, pineapple, and other citrus. Very pleasing tang and minerality in the lingering finish.

Paired very well with the scallops and risotto!

Salute,
a Wine Student

Catena 2005 Malbec

Third in my series of South American Malbec tastings...

This was the most expensive malbec that I could find at the store, so I bought it to round out my price range of $10-$20. Turned out this is the best one of the bunch!

Catena 2005 Malbec
Winery: Bodega Catena Zapata
Country: Argentina
Region: Mendoza
Made from grapes sourced from 4 different vineyards ranging from 2850-5000 feet altitude (now that's some high altitude!). Aged 12 months in 70% French Oak (20% new) and 30% new American Oak.
Stats: 13.5% abv, pH = 3.78, TA = 5.13 g/L

Appearance: Deep, deep purple. Essentially opaque to the eye.
Aroma: Dark cherries, blackberries, and black currants. Underlying oak and leather with some spice notes.
Taste: A very complex, but mild wine. A weave of cherry, toasted oak, leather, and chocolate with mild tannins and even some floral notes in the finish. Long lingering finish.

I think this wine actually has the acid balance to drink as a stand alone wine, not just with food.

Salute,
a Wine Student

La Posta 2006 Malbec Angel Paulucci Vineyard

Continuing on my South American malbec tasting and reverse engineering experiments, the next wine on the docket is La Posta 2006 Malbec. Interestingly, this is a single vineyard wine made from grapes from the Angel Paulucci Vineyard.

La Posta 2006 Malbec Angel Paulucci Vineyard
Stats: 13.9% ABV, pH = 3.68, Total acidity = 3.96 g/L
Cost: $16.99 at Acton Wine & Spirits, Acton, MA
Region: Argentina, Mendoza Region, Ugarteche

Appearance: Deep purple, huge legs
Aroma: Big fruity nose with loads of cherries, blackberries, blueberries.
Taste: Big initial fruit burst with cherries and blackberries predominating. Very mild tannins and a smooth finish. Not much lingering after taste.

For those who like to keep score, this wine received a 90 pts rating from Wine Advocate.

I tasted the wine before and during a dinner of spaghetti & meatballs prepared by my lovely wife. The wine improved tremendously when drunk with the meal. The low acid was a good compliment to the acidic tomato sauce. This wine needs to be drunk with food. Otherwise, it's fairly forgettable. I get a kick out of the reviews that I've found online that describe this wine as "well-structured wine that is incredibly full of life". Sorry, I just don't see it. Good Italian food wine, but otherwise, pretty bland.


Salute,
a Wine Student.

I Made Vineyard & Winery Management Magazine!

Earlier this week, I received my latest copy of Vineyard & Winery Management magazine. I got a free subscription to the magazine when I attended the Wineries Unlimited 2007 convention in Valley Forge, PA last March as part of the registration fee. Part of this issue was devoted to advertising the upcoming Wineries Unlimited 2008 convention, but it was full of pictures from last year's convention. Imagine my delight when I discovered that I was included in a picture! On page 47, in the bottom right hand corner is a picture of one of the seminars, and way in the back, silhouetted against the wall, you can see me completely engrossed in the speaker while seated in a classic Thinker pose. I think this was one of the presentations on making ice wine given by a microbiology professor from University of Ontario. I did find that presentation fascinating--different glucose metabolic pathways in yeast in a high sugar environment that produce acetic acid and glycol to balance the osmotic pressures.

See, I told you it was fascinating!

Salute,
a Wine Student

Terrazaz 2006 Malbec

Since I'm planning on make wine from Chilean Malbec this spring (see post), I decided to do some competitive intelligence and reverse engineering on some commercial malbecs. I went to a couple of local wine stores and purchased 3 bottles of Malbec in the $10-$25 price range. I was a little disappointed that all I could find was Argentinian Malbec (even when the shelf at the Acton Wine & Spirits was proudly labeled "Chilean Wine"). Yes, I know that's two different countries, let alone wine growing regions, but I reasoned that both regions are located in high altitude arid valleys, so the resulting wine should be similar enough for my purposes. I started opening the wines this week, and will report on each in turn.

Terrazas Malbec 2006 (Wine Spectator ranking: 88 pts)
Cost: $10.99 at Westford Liquor
Country: Argentina
Region: Mendoza
Altitude: 1067 meters (3500 ft) above sea level

Stats: 13.5% ABV, pH = 3.70, total acidity = 4.05 g/L

Appearance: Deep, dark purple--very hard to see through with nice long legs.
Aroma: Big fruity nose with loads of blackberries, cassis, and plums. There's a background smell that I'm still trying to figure out if it was toasty oak or mold.
Taste: Fruit forward with initial broad blackberry. Mellow tannins with a hint of vanilla. Ended rather abruptly with a flat finish and not much lingering after taste.

I tried the wine again the next day after it had sat for ~18 hours under a vacuvin seal and found a good improvement. The aeration brought out a little more tannin pucker, but I still missed the finish. Overall, a nice inexpensive wine, but rather forgettable. I think the addition of a little tartaric acid to give the finish a bit of a bite would go a long way in improving this wine.

Salute,
a Wine Student

Grape Pomace Good for your Smile!

As if we needed another reason to like wine, it turns out that the left-over dregs after fermentation (the pomace) can yield polyphenol extracts that inhibit bacteria that cause tooth decay (see story)! Apparently, these extracts inhibited glucosyltransferases from two different bacterial strains by a whopping 85%. Bacteria in the mouth use glucosyltransferases to anchor themselves to the teeth and become resistant to toothbrushing. Even better, the research was done at the University of Rochester Medical Center and Cornell University using red grape pomace donated from wineries in the New York Finger Lakes. Cabernet Franc pomace was the best of the three varietals tried (over pinot noir and noiret). Could this be the start of a interstate anti-bacterial rivalry--"Our grape gunk is better than your grape gunk!"? Will this cause the lowly Cab Franc to be the new pinot?

Of course, we're years away from actual drug treatments derived from grape pomace, but at the moment, I can't get the picture of a dentist smearing fermented grape skins over my teeth out of my head! That would be a picture worth a thousand words!!

Salute!
a Wine Student.