Last-Minute Holiday Gift Ideas: Wine! (Yes, you have to share)

Luckily these bottles were empty before the SEC Championship.

Typically picking up Holiday gifts at the grocery store is considered, if you'll forgive the pun, in poor taste.  What could grocery store shelves hold of any value beyond the tan and gold boxes of candy with maybe two edible pieces in them?  Okay, I'll always take a bag of Dove Dark Promises (no Hershey's for this half-Belgian, please), but I'm talking about wine.  It seems that there are some hidden gems for reasonable prices out there.

Our first foray this year into reasonable gift wines came courtesy of some wine samples from Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits.  Yes, FCC, these were samples, but as you'll see, their free-ness didn't influence our opinions.  We tasted them at a dinner gathering with a couple of friends, one of whom has been in the restaurant/hospitality industry for several years.

The first wine wins the "most likely to be damned by its label before it's given a fair chance" award.  It was pitched in the original email as the perfect gift for "that bubbly person who keeps you smiling! Maybe your girlfriend who brings a smile on your face, or your best friend who is the one you’re sharing laughs with and celebrating life with."  Yes, it's bubbly and pink.  It also has a kangaroo on the label.  We found hints of strawberry on the nose, and the wine itself is off-dry with some strawberry stem, and lots of tropical fruit mid-palate & on the finish.  Our friend noted that, if no one ever saw the Yellow Tail label, it could be a good choice for a restaurant house bubbly.  I liked it and would give it a good to very good rating.  It would also be fun to surprise our wine snob friends at their annual New Year's party.  For a suggested retail price (SRP) of $10, it was deemed "Totally worth it."
Region:  Southeastern Australia
Varietals:  Semillon, Traminer, Shiraz, Frontignac

Couldn't resist the Christmas tree shot.

The second wine, the Villa Pozzi Pinot Grigio (Sicily), boasted to be "ideal for the modern woman with its refined aromatic, well balanced taste profile and simply-elegant packaging."  According to the tech sheet, the nose should be of rose and honeysuckle.  Maybe we got an off bottle, but the nose we got was overripe dishtowel, which is a smell typically associated with corked wine.  This one has a screwtop, and yes, we checked the dishtowel that had cleaned the glasses.  It was fresh.  The wine itself fell flat with some floral in the middle, but not much else.  Yeah, I'd skip this one, even at its $10 SRP. 

Finally, the 2011 Ruta 22 Malbec (Patagonia, Argentina), designated the "the gift for the adventurous, travel-lover on your list" rounded off the evening.  The nose was a little gamey, which is not unpleasant for a wine that begs to be paired with meat.  It was juicy but not jammy with berry and dark fruit.  Some found the peppery finish to be a bit much.  Forget the travel-lover, bring this as a hostess gift to a meat lover who's serving a nice juicy roast.  I feel the SRP of $13 is about right.

Our other "Go-to Wine" tasting came courtesy of JavaMonkey in Decatur, Georgia, and all of these should be available at the Dekalb Farmers' Market and are all under $15.  Since they're fairly reasonable, consider getting a magnum to wield against the pre-Christmas shoppers.  Yes, FCC, we paid for this tasting.  Fellow blogger Dan Browning and I decided to play off the go-to theme with our comments.

The wines:

2011 Protocolo Blanco (Vino de la Tierra de Castilla, Spain):  70% Arien, 30% Macabejo
Go to the beach with this crisp, mineral wine with a gardenia nose and lemony finish. 
Rating:  Good to Very Good

2010 La Craie (Vouvray, Loire Valley, France):  100% Chenin Blanc
Go to the tropics with a nice, light nose and plenty of pineapple and tropical fruit.
Rating:  Very Good

Love the label!

2011 Monte Oton (Borja, Spain):  100% Garnacha
Git along little doggie.  This wine smells like meat and butter.  It starts leathery, but as it opens, more fruit comes out.  I'd pair this with a Tanja Michaels Texas romance novel and a steak.  Yeah, I might have made the comment that it's like licking a cowboy.  No, I don't really know what that's like.  Moving right along…
Rating:  Good

2010 Santa Ema Merlot (Peumo, Cachapoal Valley, Chile):  100% Merlot
Go to the housetop.  Yep, it's got some clove and a little cedar on the palate.  It's medium-bodied, but still has a lot of nice, dark fruit.  Santa might prefer this one to milk.
Rating:  Good

2010 Castaño Monastrell (Yecla, Spain):  100% Monastrell
Going…  (No, I'm not sure how that one tied in)  A little funky and bitter at first, which was disappointing after the nice dark fruit nose.
Rating:  Okay

2011 Château Pesquié Terrasses Red (Ventoux, France):  70% Grenache, 30% Syrah
Vas-tu au Ventoux!  Hubby and I discovered wines from this sub-region of the Rhone Valley on a trip to Belgium a few years ago, and we snap them up when we do.  This one had a funky French Syrah nose, and was dark and smooth with just a hint of frizzante (mild fizziness).  This would be a great one to take to a party.
Rating:  Very Good

Whatever you happen to be drinking this holiday season, I hope you enjoy it and stay safe.  Happy Holidays from me, Hubby, and the blog cats!

Tasting Notes: Dr. Goldilocks and the Six Tempranillos

Once upon a time, there was a stressed-out allied health professional with curly hair the color of old pennies, but shiny. We'll skip the debate as to whether it's blond or red, and we'll completely ignore the gray that's popping in – they're just really light blond, darnit! She had a long four-day week with lots of patients, emails from a marketing minion who wants everything NOW, and a very patient adminion who wouldn't let Dr. Goldilocks put off important tasks for too long. Oh, and contract work that makes for a nice change of pace, but which needed to be done before she left the next day to see Dr.-in-training Goldilocks 2.0 (aka Babysis) in Philadelphia.

So yes, she was stressed out, and when she finally left the office at 8:30, she was tired, hungry, and ready to have some wine. She wandered through the food aroma gauntlet of downtown Decatur (of which Atlanta is a suburb in case you're reading this, and you're Carl), but having given up red meat for Lent, Ted's wasn't an option, Ruby Tuesday was too chain restaurant, and Leon's was just too crowded. It was too early for the Decatur Diner, so she ended up at JavaMonkey, where she knew her friends would be gathered for the biweekly wine tasting, in this case Tempranillo.

Tempranillo, if you're wondering, is a Spanish varietal red, and the only people who can say the name right are from places like Peru. Seriously, it sounds like they're making love to it in their mouth. It's swoon-worthy. You may know it better as the primary grape in Rioja, which goes with fun words like Crianza.

For the sake of narrative, I'm going to mix up the tasting order. Just bear (no pun intended) with me.

Dr. Goldilocks tried the 2008 Protocolo Tempranillo (Vino de la Tierra de Castilla, Spain). Aged in American oak, she proclaimed, "This wine is too thin!" Indeed, it didn't have much to it outside the cedar-y finish.

Then she tried the 2009 Vega Sindoa Tempranillo (Navarra, Spain). This one she deemed as, "too earthy, and it's doing strange fruity things on the roof of my mouth!"

The 2008 Emilo Moro Finca Resalso (Ribera del Duero, Spain) had interesting caramel-cedar notes, and had a caramel/chocolate finish. "It's good, but still not what I'm looking for."

Enter the 2006 Raimat Viña 43 Tempranillo, which spends 18 months in Virginia oak. Because there's nothing like knowing *exactly* where your wood comes from. It has to be good if the founding fathers got drunk on it, right? This one was all cherry smoothness. "That's more like it!"

The 2006 Sierra Cantabria Crianza from Rioja, Spain (told you!) had a nice raspberry-cherry nose that Hubby said had a whiff of sunscreen. It went very well with the Bello Prosciutto sandwich. "This one's very good."

Finally the 2007 Venta Mazzaron Tempranillo (Tierra del Vino de Zamora, Spain) had a little hickory smoke to it, but was well-balanced with yummy fruit. It also has an interesting history in that it's mostly from un-grafted, pre-phylloxera vines.

"Ah," said Dr. Goldilocks, "this one is just right!"

Look for blog and Twitter updates this weekend from Pennsylvania wine country!

Tasting Notes: Brown Bagging It at JavaMonkey

In Mindfulness there's a concept called Beginner's Mind, wherein you shelve preconceptions, expectations, and interpretations and experience things as though you're seeing, hearing, or – most importantly for this post – tasting them for the very first time. I think I got my first inkling of this in graduate school, when the newest darts player would usually score the highest. This concept came back to me clearly during this past Thursday's brown bag tasting at JavaMonkey.

For wine beginners a brown bag tasting involves the wine bottles being covered by a brown bag and numbered so that the tasters are blind to what's being poured other than it being a red or white.* This means the clues you have to what you're drinking come only from your senses, so it truly is mindful wine tasting. I'll admit – I'm not good at this type of tasting and fully expected Dan Browning, who's had a decade more to develop his palate and knowledge, to kick my ass. Surprisingly – or maybe not so – we were both trounced by the newbie** at the table, at least the one who was actually trying. The other beginner was merely labeling what she drank as "wine."

The wines:

Number one had a floral nose, and those notes carried to the edges of the palate with fruit in the middle. The texture had a slight effervescence, and it was so delicate I guessed something like a Semillon. Dan guessed Australian Riesling since the bottle was obviously a screw top. The newbie guessed it was a Sauvignon Blanc, and he was right. It was the 2009 Cartlidge & Browne Sauv Blanc from Napa.
Newbie: 1
Dan: 0
Cecilia: 0
Rating: Good

Wine number two didn't have much of a nose, but it was so tart that I guessed Sauv Blanc, and Dan went as far as to say it was from New Zealand.

"Hmmm," said the newbie with a swirl, "I'm going to say Pinot Grigio."

Once again, he was right. The kicker is that Hubby and I had tasted the 2008 Montinore Estate Pinot Gris on our recent trip to Oregon (yeah, that's one of the blog posts I need to catch up on). My notes in the tasting room were melon, green apple, and pear. I guess I got more of the green apple with this pour.

Newbie: 2
Dan: 0
Cecilia: 0
The wine: Good to Very Good

We were all in agreement on wine number three in that it was a Pinot Noir. Newbie and I both said Willamette, Dan said New Zealand again. It was the 2009 Montinore Estate Pinot Noir, which we hadn't tasted because it wasn't out yet. Again, a little fizzy on the texture, fruity with white pepper overtones, and with a nice, buttery finish.

Newbie: 3.5
Dan: 1
Cecilia: 1.5 (I'm awarding half points for guessing the region)
The wine: Good to Very Good

Those will be the last scores because the Newbie didn't get any of the other ones, and Dan and I only got the last one beyond this.

Wine number four threw us all. It came out of the bottle dark and inky, and it had smooth fruit with a cedar-spice finish. I decided to throw caution to the wind and guessed (hopefully) Petit Verdot. Wrong! This beauty was the 2008 Protocola Tempranillo (Castilla, Spain).
Rating: Very Good

Number five had a plastic nose, dark fruit middle, and hot finish. Dan and I guessed Merlot or maybe a Cotes du Rhone blend (can you tell we were foundering?). Nope, it was the 2008 Viña Borgia Garnacha (Borja, Spain).
Rating: Good

Finally, Dan and I both guessed number six to be a Shiraz from Australia. Oaky with blueberry overtones and a chocolate finish, the 2008 Cimicky Trumps Shiraz (Barossa Valley, Australia) was yummy.
Rating: Good to Very Good

Discussing it at the end, Dan and I figured that we had overthought the tasting. Apparently one of the regulars had nailed five out of the six varietals.*** This tasting demonstrates that I need to do more drinking with my nose and palate in Beginner's Mind mode. I can definitely live with that.

Final Scores:

Newbie: 3.5
Dan: 2.5
Cecilia: 3

* Yes, I realize that most of you know what a brown bag tasting is, but I figured I'd explain just in case there's someone out there who thought we were drinking wine that's typically drunk from a bag-wrapped bottle, e.g., Mad Dog.

** I mean no disrespect or condescension – he's in a similar field to mine, so I'm not sure whether he'd be okay if I identify him.

*** Bitch.