STAN’S PICK FOR FEBRUARY 2013…

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Stan The Wine Man

I can’t believe it, but last month I did not run across a wine that I felt comfortable with as my “Pick of the Month.” I think it’s a first. I thought it was going to be Haystack Needle “The Eye” which is a red blend out of Washington State. However, I was let down by the current vintage. It was good, but it had some lipstick components that were off-putting to me. I’m not saying no one would like it, because a lot of my customers did. It’s just that it did not hit that acceptable level for me to declare it “The Wine” of the month. It was a much different story this month. I knew once I tasted this wine it was a winner for the price.

2009 Borsao Berola (Campo de Borja, Spain) … $13.99
This blend of 70% Grenache, 20% Syrah and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon is a lot of wine for the dough. A hint of stink on the nose with notes of black olives, black currants, blackberries, tar and tobacco leaf. This is one of those wines you can sit with and just savor the smells. On the palate, deep and seductive, intense and structured from start to finish. Dark cherries, blackberries and cassis with a hit of white pepper on the finish. Seamless across the palate with an edge of spice. Minerals and tar linger on the finish. Given the balance and intensity of this wine, I can see it hanging in your cellar for 5-8 years. Hard to believe you can get a wine this good for fourteen bucks. This was #5 on my top 40 wines under $20 in 2012. I could have picked it for January, but it escaped my notice. Not so this month. (A-)

For the Month of February it is offered at a lower price. So, if you have a savvy wine steward in your area, he or she will be all over it. Buy some now, drink it and you will be more then happy if not ecstatic. Put some away for 3-5 years and you may be praying thanks to Bacchus. Cheers! Stan The Wine Man

Distributed by Elliott Bay Distributing (Seattle, WA)

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A FEW GOOD, A FEW NOT SO GOOD… ALL IN A WEEKS WORK.

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Stan The Wine Man

I love finding great values in wine and passing them along to you. I also feel a certain responsibility to warn you about some wines that are out there that might be a complete waste of your money. In this segment of “From The Moleskine To You” I found some good wines, and some stinkers. (At least in my opinion). Here is a review of last weeks tasting notes.

2010 Bogle Vineyards Essential Red (California) … $10.99
This is a fairly new introduction from Bogle. I got on Twitter and asked a few of my wine friends what they thought of it and none had tried it yet. Hard to believe but it’s true. I was eager to try it.
Fairly intense on the nose with notes of blueberries, vanilla and a little tar and tobacco. I have to say I liked the nose. Smooth and polished on the palate with dark fruit notes coming through backed by spice, tar and tobacco. On the finish, blueberries, spice and pepper linger for some time. The only flaw I detected in the wine was that it was a bit hollow on the mid-palate. Overall, a nice effort from Bogle at a great price.
A blend of Old Vine Zinfandel, Syrah, Cab and Petite Sirah (B-)

2009 Lock & Key Meritage (North Coast, California)… $13.99
Dusty oats, cherries and a back drop of blueberry and vanilla come through on the nose. Sour cherries and plums in spades on the front of the palate. This is an acid meets dark fruit wine with a strong hit of citrus. The elements of the wine never really integrates leaving an awkward feeling in the mouth. This is oranges meet blackberries. I think there are some elements in this wine that some will like, but I think it is to disjointed. A blend of Cab, Merlot and Cab Franc. (D)

2011 Primal Roots Red Blend (California) …$9.99
A little stink on the nose (which never bothers me) along with some dark fruit notes, black raspberry and black licorice. Red currants and cherries on the front of the palate with a hit of bright acidity. It stays on the brighter side into a finish of minty licorice, blackberries and a hit of spice. I thought this wine was on the simple side, but I liked it. 43% Merlot, 37% Syrah and 20% Zinfandel (C)

2010 Cryptic Red (California) … $15.99
Aromas of perfumed dark cherries, licorice, vanilla, mocha and black plums.(Is that enough for you?) Ripe currants hit you up front with notes of blackberries melding in along with chocolate and mocha that flow into the mid-palate. There is a slight tannic grip on the long finish with hits of spice. Zinfandel, Petite Sirah and Cab (C+)

2010 Dreaming Tree “Crush” Red (North Coast, California) … $13.99
This is a collaboration between rock star Dave Matthews and wine maker Steve Reeder.
The nose does not “Pop” on this wine but it has subtle notes of blackberries and currants which are slightly dusty and perfumed. Polished sweet tannins on the palate with notes of blackberries and red currants. The elements are well integrated in this wine making it seamless across the palate, flowing into notes of tobacco, blueberries and currants with lingering spice notes. This wine scores highly in the delicious category. Not sure on the blend, I could not find anything in my research. (B-)

2009 Thorny Rose Red Blend (Columbia Valley, Washington) … $10.99
Oak comes through on the nose, but it is not too much. Also aromas of perfumed dark cherries, a little tar element and tobacco. Soft tannins back notes of tar, black cherries and blackberries. There is a spicy edge to this wine with some wood tannins showing up on the mid-palate and the medium to short finish. This wine is fairly lightweight but is still interesting. The price is pretty fair also. 48% Cab, 48% Merlot with a splash of Syrah and Malbec. (C+)

2008 Silver Lake Roza Red Blend (Rattlesnake Hills, Washington) … $8.99
Nice purity of fruit on the nose with notes of blackberries, cassis and sage. Plush on the front of the palate with ripe notes of boysenberries and dark cherries on sweet tannins. Good intensity on the palate into the mid-palate where the fruit calms down and tobacco with a beam of currant leads into a dry finish with a little tannic grip. Starts out “New World” fruit forward, and finishes on the “Old World” side with a little tar, tobacco and tannins. And, the price is stupid for the quality. Cab, Merlot & Syrah (B-)

2009 McKinley Springs Bombing Range Red (Horse Heaven Hills, Washington) … $11.99
Aromas of smokey plums, cherries and tobacco leaf with hits of dusty minerals. Plums and boysenberries in spades on the palate backed by silky tannins. There is a freshness to this wine that makes you think it is going to “Pop”, but it never quite goes there. It thins out a little on the mid-palate and finish with notes of blueberries and tobacco coming through. I liked the front hit of fruit on this wine, and the freshness. However, I would have liked to see a stronger finish. 52% Syrah, 40% Cab, 4% Malbec and 4% Petite Verdot (C+)

2010 Chateau Ste. Michelle Indian Wells Red (Columbia Valley, Washington) … $16.99
Like a glass full of cooked bacon on the nose with some currants, boysenberries, vanilla and spice thrown in. I swear they threw some bacon in the barrel. The bacon comes through in the mouth with notes of plums, char and spice. Polished tannins and well integrated flowing seamlessly into notes of boysenberries, plums, white pepper and bacon. Some tannins show up on a long finish that features… Bacon of course, with some dark fruit notes thrown in. It is an absolutely delicious wine, and you don’t have to worry about the grease. 60% Merlot, 28% Syrah, 6% Cab, 3% Grenache and 2% Malbec (B+)

2010 Kris “Heart” Rosso Italian Red (All Over Italy…Sicily, Marches and Alto Aldige) … $11.99
Aromas of dusty cedar boards with a little funk. Notes of black cherries, black olives, tar and an edge of vanilla also come through on the nose. This is a simple little red with notes of blackberries, cherries and hits of tar backed by soft tannins. Tiny hits of white pepper come through on the medium finish. The wine is clean and fresh with nice fruit notes and an edge of rusticity. Great red for pizza, hamburgers or pasta with red sauce. It also has a really cool label for Valentines Day…Just sayin’. (C+)

Well, it looks like it was all blends this week. Some great and some so-so. But I think there is something for everyone. May the Moleskine be with you. Cheers! Stan The Wine Man

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GREAT WINES…GREAT MEATLOAF…THE WINNER IS.

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Stan The Wine Man

I hope I didn’t tell any of you to hold your breath waiting for this article. Because Mr. Seifert ran out of a few wines at his table before I had a chance to taste, I have been scrambling to get them tasted so I could post a review. Not happening, so I will just tell you how the tasting went and give you the recipe of the winning meatloaf.

I was most impressed with the group at this event. They were all so well behaved, polite and patient. Not to say the group is ever rude or out of control, but there have been nights that have been, let’s say… a little tougher. We all had a blast as we tasted through some great wines and judged some well made meatloaf that was entered into the cook-off.

The meatloaf that got the most votes was made by Kings Market Deli. They help out every year when we do this event, so it seems appropriate to let them enter the contest. This is the first time they have come out the winner. However, it seemed right to have them step aside and let one of the other contestants get the prize of first place. So, the official winner of the meatloaf cook-off was Shauna Rand. Actually, her meatloaf was only two votes shy of what the Deli received. I will post her recipe at the end of the article. Second place went to Teri Gentry. Congratulations to both Shauna and Teri for a fantastic job on the meatloaf. From what everyone told me, it was a very difficult decision, because they were all so good. I would like to thank all of the contestants for taking the time and effort to be a part of the competition.

The theme of this tasting event was “Best Wines With Meatloaf” so Ted Seifert from Unique Wines came to the table with wines he felt would match up the best with that dish. I have to say that it was a little easier to do then last year when it was wines that paired with chili. Anyway, Ted did a great job of finding some really nice wines to taste. In every event, we need to have a few whites simply because some folks prefer them and it balances out the tasting. So, we had a sparkler, an Albarino and a Chardonnay.

The fizz was Castellar Cava from Spain. I’ve always liked Castellar and it was well received by the tasters. It has some nice complexity, smaller bubbles and a little weight on the palate with some yeast and apple notes backed by a little nuttiness. Why a sparkler? You have to have something in your glass while you’re cooking the meatloaf. Right?
I think Ted took a little risk bringing an Albarino to the tasting. It was Columna Albarino from Rias Baixas Spain. Now, I really liked it myself. Albarino is in some ways similar to viognier. It is fruity but not fruit forward. Notes of tropical and citrus fruits come through in spades with a perfumed edge to it. The Columna was very nice with tangerine and mango notes followed by a dry finish. It was by far the least popular of the whites at the event. Oh well, we have to bring those from time to time for palate education. The popularity of the Nugan Third Generation Chardonnay from South-Eastern Australia caught me off guard. Everybody (almost that is) loved it and kept coming back for more. It was not a heavy chard, but it had some nice creamy tropical fruit notes with a kiss of oak. I liked it myself, and thought it had nice balance and flavors. Australian wines are having a tough time right now in the market, so it was nice to see a little spark in favor of our wine making friends from down under.

The reds covered many regions from around the world. France, Italy, Argentina, Chile, California and Washington State. The two favorites were the 2010 Colosi Rosso (Sicily, Italy) and the 2011 Line 39 Petite Sirah (Central Coast, California). I didn’t get a chance to taste anything from that table, but I know Ted ran out of the Colosi early because just about everyone kept going back for more. He also poured 2011 “The Jack” Syrah from Saviah Cellars (Columbia Valley, Washington), 2010 Reunion Tinto (Mendoza, Argnetina) and 2010 Vetisquero Cabernet Sauvignon (Colchagua Valley, Chile). All of these reds were received well by the tasters and it could explain why I had slow periods at my table from time to time.

Besides the three whites, I had two reds from France that I was pouring. First, the 2010 La Petite Fontaine Cotes-du-Rhone. I found this Cotes-du-Rhone to have a lot of elegance and minerality. It was on the simple side, but it held true to southern Rhone. Second, and one of my personal favorites was the 2011 Michel Chapoutier Bila-Haut Cotes-du-Roussillon Village. Deep and brooding with a load of spice and minerals. Very old world with tobacco and earth elements balanced with intense boysenberry and black currant notes. For some reason, most of the folks that attend my tasting events shy away from Rhone Valley blends. I’m not sure why, but it isn’t going to stop me from introducing these wonderful wines to them. Even at the store that I work, I find it hard to sell Cotes-du-Rhone or other reds from this general area of France. It just goes to show how subjective wine preferences are. Usually when I go nuts about a wine like I did the Bila-Haut, we sell a lot of that wine. Not so this time. Don’t worry, it doesn’t bother me, and it certainly will not stop me from trying to sell it later.

So the big hit in reds was the Colosi Rosso, and the big hit in whites was the Nugan “Third Generation” Chardonnay. Shauna Rand was the winner of the meatloaf contest and received a 3 liter bottle of Bogle Phantom Red for her efforts. I would like to thank everyone who came for supporting these events and for being such a good crowd. Cheers!

WINNING MEATLOAF RECIPE BY SHAUNA RAND:

Here’s the recipe for my meatloaf. This is very adaptable to variations….. so get creative and have some fun with it! I don’t measure exactly, just kind of go by consistency. I don’t add salt as the soup mix is salty already.

1 ½ lbs lean hamburger

2, 3 or 4 slices of stale sourdough bread (must be sourdough!)

Minced garlic

1 chopped onion

1 Pkg. Lipton Onion Soup (dry)

1 tablespoon Kitchen Bouquet

1 – 2 eggs

Chopped mushrooms (optional)

Add 1/3 C. milk or so to tie everything together

Brush top with A-1 Thick and Hearty steak sauce

Form into loaf and bake for one hour at 350 degrees.

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ARE WINE CRITICS IMMUNE TO SUBJECTIVITY?

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Stan The Wine Man

I had an interesting conversation with Joe Roberts (1Winedude) on Twitter about how we as wine critics approach rating a wine. What started the interaction was a statement I made on Twitter about switching from the 100 point scoring system for wine to the A-F grading system that Joe currently uses. In our conversation, it became obvious that a critics ability to get around subjectivity when it comes to reviewing a wine was the cause of what became a friendly debate between the two of us. Are wine writers and critics immune to subjectivity?

My answer to that question is no, and here is why. I am assuming of course that most wine critics like myself enjoy drinking wine…Otherwise why would we feel inspired to write about the subject and feel qualified to make judgements about what we are tasting. That being said, since we like wine, we are going to have preferences that cannot be ignored. We may analyze a wine and break it down into elements that make a wine good or bad, and then rate it based on the sum of its parts. However, it is each of those elements of a wine that define its subjectivity. Take for example acidity.

Acidity is a key element in the longevity of a wine. Without balanced acidity, a wine will not age very well. Acidity also is a key component in driving the flavors of a wine. We can liken acidity to electricity. It lights up the flavors and gives them impact on the palate. Without a balanced amount however the wine can be dull and flabby with no life or electricity as it were. This is where subjectivity comes in. Some of us (critics) may be fond of acidity. In fact, I have a wine drinking friend who is literally addicted to acid. He sells wine to me and nine times out of ten, he will bring a wine that leans heavily towards acid. Now, I myself enjoy a wine with a heavy dose of acid from time to time. However, I lean towards a rounder style with balanced acid. Will my friend be influenced by his love for acidity if he is rating a wine? I firmly believe he would be, maybe not purposely, but subliminally. Deep in his soul, he craves acid and if the wine does not deliver the amount needed to satisfy that craving, it will not make the grade.

My weakness is minerality. As soon as a wine shows minerals in the mouth, I go nuts. I love it, I crave it, and I know that it influences my feelings about a wine. I may try in vain to ignore this part of my wine psyche but I know deep inside that it will rear its head. Minerals are all about terroir and I am all about a wine expressing its sense of place. I know there is a constant debate about terroir and I refuse to believe that wine does not express in its soul where it was born and raised. Therefore, I will be the first to admit that a wine that is mineral driven will get a thumbs up from me. I’m not saying that I don’t try to recognize that, and work to be objective when it comes to a wine containing a healthy dose of minerals. I’m just saying that deep inside I know it influences my rating of a wine, along with being balanced and well made.

One of the top critics in the world is known for craving certain styles of wine and rating them accordingly. Who might that be? Robert Parker Jr. has long had the reputation for liking as he would put it… generous, unctuous wines. Whether you like him or hate him, his wine ratings have made or broken wineries around the globe. He has been accused of driving wine makers to produce wines that are high in alcohol, big and bombastic in order to procure a high rating in his wine journal The Wine Advocate. I’m not sure if all of that is true, but it goes to show that even a highly regarded wine critic is incapable of avoiding subjectivity when it comes to rating wine.

That is why I chose to switch over to the A thru F grading system for rating wines. I had a few teachers in school who would give me an “A” not because my work was perfect, but because they liked the effort I put into the class, or they just liked me as a person. Is that fair? Not always of course but it is the way life works sometimes. If I give a wine an “A” it may not be a perfect wine. What is a perfect wine anyway? I give a wine an “A” because it pleases my palate, it shows a good effort in wine making, it has all the elements that make a good wine a good wine and I just simply like it enough to give it an A. If it puts my palate on overload, I may be inclined to give it an A+.

A retired teacher friend of mine once told me that the 100 point system in school was always a problem for him. He would give a student 96/100 and invariably that student would come to him and ask why they didn’t get a 97. It’s good question and a fine line. What if I were to give a wine 99 points? Why not 100? What one flaw in that wine caused me to nix it by one point? And is a 100 point wine really a perfect wine? Who says so? The 100 point scoring system is too definitive and I believe superfluous. Why not just use a ten point system? How many times have we said…”How is it on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best? Actually, I believe you can’t put a number on a wine at all. But you can grade it according to your personal palate preferences and other factors that come into play such as balance, minerals, acidity and finish.

In our Twitter conversation Joe Roberts (1Winedude) made an interesting statement…”The grade represents where I see that wine on a continuum of best/worst in the world.” Now Joe, like many wine critics has opportunity to taste a ton of wine over the course of a year. And not only “wine”, but many different wines. This no doubt gives him a broader spectrum on which to base his grade. However, Joe likes certain things about a wine that influences his grade of that wine. And, the fact that he tastes so many different wines certainly has to solidify his preferences. I will be the first to tell you that not everyone is the same, and 1Winedude may have better control over his preferences in wine then me, but he still has certain things he likes to taste in a wine.

I think it is safe to say that if we as critics are honest with ourselves we will admit that we are not immune to subjectivity. I know that most critics taste a boatload of grape juice and therefore have a broader base on which to compare and grade each wine. However, we are all human and have our likes and dislikes and this will show in the score or grade we give a wine. So, the key for the consumer is to get to know the critics palate and decide if you want to follow their direction. Their “A” wine may be your “B” wine and that is o.k. if you understand that. I’ve tasted some wines that other critics have raved about and I didn’t like them at all. One purchase is usually all it takes for you to know what direction the critics palate leans.

Be assured that nearly all us wine critics have the best of intentions. We want to give guidance to our readers so that when they invest their hard earned money, it is in a worthwhile bottle of wine. We love wine, and love to write and talk about it. But, we are human… ’nuff said.

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