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What happens when you send me, your local internet wine expert, out to buy a bottle of wine? Well, I come back with seven bottles* (seven, I’ve found is the maximum a person can carry on the subway and still make it home without his/her arms falling off).

$19 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano  2001 - NO, this is NOT Montepulciano d’Abruzzo… this is a Tuscan wine made with Sangiovese and Caniolo Nero grapes aged in oak for two years that tastes like red fruit covered in brown stuff… what kind of brown stuff? Take your pick… usually it’s mushrooms, cedar, oak, slightly-crumbly-summer-dirt, and wilted flowers. Think of this as more adventurous than wine from Montalcino DOCGs, but also almost never as perfect. That being said.

$17 Alexander Valley California Chardonnay 2006 - Yep, it’s oaky, buttery, tropical, and very very VERY delicious. The winery that I purchased is not at all as cool as its $30/bottle neighbors, but it’s just as good if not better because it has no marketing behind it. In fact, the label is downright ugly. Please, do not use this as a rule of thumb (ok, I know you will, and I do, too!), but there’s a saying I like to say, which is, “The more effort on the label, the less effort on the wine.” The label was so ugly, I actually picked up two bottles having never even tasted this vintage.

$35 Maranges 1er Cru “La Fussiere” Burgundy 2005 - Best vintage ever in Burgundy.** Top notch vineyard. Strong producer (strong enough that I have a bunch of ‘01 and ‘00 tucked away already!). Maranges is a village in Burgundy that produces well above average wines that more often than not get bottled as part of a Bourgogne or Cotes de Beaune Villages blend. Those blends make big money for the producers so when you see someone making a Maranges AOC instead of selling it for cash as part of a big label blend, then you know it’s probably a darn good wine.

$10 Sicilian Insolia/Chardonnay 2006 - Big, yellow and white tropical fruits, white sand, and a bit of banana peel. This one is kind of cheating because I had had it many times before, but had to pay $15 for it since we couldn’t buy in bulk because NO ONE WILL DRINK ANYTHING WITH THE WORD CHARDONNAY ON IT… argh, this is awesome for me though!

* - I bought seven bottles but only wrote about 4 bottles because I try to buy in doubles as much as I can. If it’s good, then you want another one, and if you don’t buy two the first time, then you might never see the wine again.

** - Brian F., my wine tasting role model, is at least 45 years old and whenever I use a superlative adjective when describing a wine, he has this wonderful habit of rolling his eyes and saying “_____ (insert superlative adjective here) FOR A YOUNG GUY.” So, yes, 2005 is the “best vintage ever FOR A YOUNG GUY who has been around for less than 20 harvests.”

Gushing about Wine, Wine Questions Answered | No Comments

White wine that tastes like smoke!

Actually, you’re breaking my palate lately…so, please, excuse what I’m about to say in this next wine tasting…

… it’s all true, and it’s shockingly ridiculous:

Di Giovanna Grecanico 2006, Sicily… $15… Freshly fired buckshot and dragon fruit preserves on the nose, burnt grapefruits and rotten green apples on the palate, and the sandy suction cups of uncooked octopus tentacles covered in fresh lemon juice on the finish.

I’m usually a reductionist when it comes to white wine… usually to me there’s only crisp or buttery, but Di Giovanna’s Grecanico has an entirely different feeling altogether- instead of tasting like any particular fruit, it tastes like it’s enveloping your mouth with smoke made from that fruit- almost like drinking incense sticks. So wonderfully odd!

I will research this more, but my assumption is that this wine tastes like this because it was grown on some really volcanic soil (it’s not unheard of for Mt. Etna to have a strong influence on Sicilian wine aromas). I’m excited for people to try this.

Grecanico, Gushing about Wine, Italy, Sicily, Wine Reviews | No Comments

I love asking winemakers this question because it forces them to talk about their strengths candidly but without bragging. So many winemakers say that their twenty dollar (retail) bottle is the hardest thing in the world to make… “so many punch overs” and “so many new French oak barrels to buy” they say! What this says to me is that they believe enough in their land that they are willing to invest in it, which means that they believe something special is in the terroir or soil that they must coax it out. I admire that greatly. The luck of nature and internal personal ambition is not easy to find.

On the other hand, so many winemakers say their $10 (retail) bottles are the hardest thing to make because “You have to do all the same steps as the expensive wine, but you have to do it faster and with more volume!” To me this says to me that they believe in the blueprints and foundation of their wines. That I admire greatly- “elbow grease” is hard to come by these days.

This is why I get really geeky excited about both cheap and expensive wine. I advertised “Bonarda” grapes the other day, and a woman asked me today why she loved her $9 bottle of wine so much- getting to tell her that she loved it because “Bonarda is a grape from Italy that found its home in the sunshine of Argentina, where it never has to worry about a bad vintage and gets to showcase its pomegranate and red plum juiciness” was really the most wonderful interaction I got to have with someone this week.

She loved the wine, and I loved that she loved it!

Argentina, Bonarda/Charbono, Gushing about Wine | No Comments