Wines of July 2018

Where did the heat go?

Last month I complained it was already hot. This month - the end of July is in the 80's. Hope it doesn't snow in August! (No, it will be oven hot, again).

I didn't come up with what I wanted to discuss before getting to the wines, so let's just do that.

2017 Colonia Los Liebres Bonarda Classica, Mendoza, Spain

 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

"Bold and super-fresh (slight reduction) this is an extremely expressive red with attractive cherry, blueberry, herbal and savory notes. You need to like tannins and acidity to get excited about this, but their interplay is exciting. A great food wine. Drink or hold."

This wine was about $7-$9 on special. Worth much more than that – good fruit, nice texture and mouthfeel and acidity to be a very good food wine. Tasted better the next day. Buy a case of this stuff…

2016 Broc Love Red, North Coast, Ca

WINEMAKER’S NOTES: The grapes were harvested during the third week of September to help preserve their natural acidity. The Carignan and Valdiguié were 100% destemmed and fermented in 5-ton, open-top wood fermenters. Malolactic fermentation was allowed to happen naturally.

VINEYARD NOTES: This is our fourth bottling of Love Red. As with the last bottling,we used grapes from 50-70 year old vines from Frei Vineyard in Solano County's Green Valley. Green Valley is small pocket of land, about 3 miles long and a mile wide, tucked between the south eastern corner of Napa Valley and southwestern edge of Suisun Valley. It’s unique in that it still contains many of its old-vine Carignan and Valdiguié vineyards on clay-loam soils. Using dry-farmed/head-pruned vines, this is mostly a field blend with a small percentage of Syrah blended in from neighboring Wirth Ranch.

BLEND: 54% Carignan, 31% Syrah, 15% Valdiguié

The wines are made in Chris Brockway’s Berkeley, California warehouse (hooray for urban winemaking!) from grapes that are sustainably, organically, or biodynamically farmed. The goal is to make wines that express their site – and the grapes are often from unexpected places. This unusual blend is light and delicious, packed with red fruit notes and earthy undertones. Yum!

My notes indicated this was really good – a touch of biodynamic funk, but bright and slightly unusual flavors. Nice long finish – tasters good when chilled for summer enjoyment. Price is around $20.

2016 Domaine de la Prebende, Beaujolais, France

Domaine de la Prébende produces a deeply mineral Beaujolais from a predominantly clay and limestone terroir, a rarity in a region dominated by granite soils. “Une prébende” essentially means “a tax,” and the domaine sits on the location where monks used to collect taxes from the villagers. As Ghislaine Dupeuble puts it, “Monks didn't like to own low end vineyards!”

The Prébende Beaujolais cuvée, “Anna Asmaquer,” is named for Ghislaine's great grandmother, who married Jules Dupeuble in 1919. The family wanted to add her name to the label because it was Anna who managed the vineyards and winemaking—she is the true source of inspiration for what has become Domaine de la Prébende today.

The Anna Asmaquer Beaujolais is an old vines blend with profound minerality, a bright wild berry nose, and possesses typique Beaujolais finesse. The grapes are harvested manually and vinified completely without SO2. The wines are not chaptalized, filtered, or degassed and only natural yeasts are used for the fermentation. La Prébende crafts one of the best Beaujolais AOC values available today.
87 POINTS           Wine Enthusiast

This wine is rich, full of black-cherry flavors while also having a crisp texture. With its light tannins and intense acidity, it is juicy, ripe and ready to drink.

 I noted this was a nice wine – flavors were “gentle” with a good finish.  A good wine to sip or have with summer meals, from grilled items to salads. Price it good – a Kermit Lynch import – priced at around $20, probably available for 15-16. Well worth the effort to try…

2016 Invivo Pinot Noir, Central Otago, New Zealand

Dusty garnet color. Aromas of spiced kiwis, proscuitto wrapped honeydew, cherry paste, and Indonesian sweet soy sauce with a satiny, dry-yet-fruity medium body and an effortless, interesting, medium-length pomegranate, dates, and marinating spices finish with woody tannins and light oak. A very interesting and bright pinot with a spicy, savory palate.

I noted that this Pinot had a good nose – broad fruit flavors and a long finish. Really bright for a Central Otago wine – and the acid balance made it very good with food. Worth looking for – price will be between $20 – 25.

2017 Vina Maitia 'Weon' Carigane, Maule, Chile

This 100% unoaked Carignan is from the Maule region in Chile. Notes of blackberry and cassis dusted by cinammon and cedar show on the nose. The palate shows hints of mushroom and earth tones underneath the dark fruit. A touch of black pepper spice and a solid dose of structural tannins round out the wine.

Robert Parker Wine 91 Points

The 2016 Weon Carignan ("weon" is a basic slang word that is used for almost everything in Chile, mostly equivalent to "mate") is produced with a field blend in Loncomilla where most of the plants are Cariñena, but there is also some País. It had a soft vinification in lagar aiming at a fruit-driven, fresh and varietal wine with low alcohol (12.5%), aged in concrete à la Pipeño for six months. This is more reticent than the Aupa, with a more serious nose and palate dominated by Carignan with no influence from oak. It has fine, slightly dusty tannins, a lighter style of the grape with shorter macerations.

I rated this as fair – not a bad mouthfeel but it didn’t hold well – then end seemed dusty. The acids seemed too high for the fruit – I can’t really say I would go out and find this wine. OK but not one I’d look for. Price is $13 -16.

2015 Castano Monastrell, Yecla, Spain

There are only a handful of wineries remaining in Yecla since the phyloxera plague, and they are led by the forward-thinking Bodegas Castano, which has helped to reinvigorate the winemaking in the region.

Created by Ramon Castano Santa and his 3 sons, Bodegas Castano is not nearly as old as the vines it owns. Starting quite small, the family has nurtured these old plantings and re-planted other parcels and now owns 350 hectares of some of the prime vineyard land in Yecla. Today, Daniel Castano, one of Ramon's sons, runs the winery with the help of other members of the family.

The extremely talented Mariano Lopez has taken over the winemaker reins at the Bodega, and has turned the focus toward more balanced bottlings of older vine Monastrell. Both traditional and carbonic maceration techniques are used and all wines pass through malolactic fermentation. Daniel believes that the fruit and tannin structure of the Monastrell varietal stands up well to the use of oak, and as such, many of the wines pass (in varying degrees) through a barrel regime.

Winemaker Notes

Deep shiny cherry-red of medium intensity. Expressive aromas of well ripen red fruit. Well structured and balanced, rich and meaty tannins.

This bottle was under $8 – you never expect much, but this is one heck of buy! Surprising full bodied, great fruit and tannic underlayer with a moderate finish. No one will believe you paid that little for this wine.  Buy a bunch…

Troublemaker Sauvignon Blanc Blend 2, Central Coast, Ca

Troublemaker Sauvignon Blanc Blend 2, Central Coast, Ca

Every Troublemaker needs a partner in crime – that’s why we’ve introduced Troublemaker Sauvignon Blanc. A refreshingly zesty Sauvignon Blanc with a splash of Riesling and Grenache Blanc, this wine is the crisp counterpart to the dark and brooding Troublemaker Red Blend.

Troublemaker Sauvignon Blanc is the epitome of porch pounder. Flashy fruit aromas and flavors of lychee, starfruit, papaya and guava, with notes of gardenia and grapefruit pith. On the palate, the flavors are brought to life by vibrant acidity and long, lush finish.

Yup, this is a good porch pounder for hot summer days. Cool it down and drink away. Enough balance to go with light entrees or appetizers, I got it on sale for under $9. Pretty good for that price – from the Austin Hope family of wines. 

Well, that is July - hope you enjoy another month of wines. Until we are together again, keep popping those corks and I'll meet you out behind the grapevines!