Sauvignon Blanc

Last night when I got home from work Lauren had opened a bottle of 2006 Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc so I sat down and flipped through a couple magazines while I drank a glass. It was really good for the $12.99 price tag at Costco. Tons of fruit ... apples, maybe some peach. It had a nice, dry finish without too much sugar. The Marlborough region of New Zealand is apparently putting out some great Sauvignon Blancs and if this is any indication of what's out there, I'll be picking up some others.

For the record, one of the magazines I was reading was the new issue of Wine Spectator and I was a little sad that there wasn't too much of the Santa Barbara area covered by their California Rhone varietals article. Oh well, more for me!

Dinner at The Palace

We made the trip down to Santa Barbara from Santa Ynez and stopped in at the Creekside Inn for a beer or two and a game of horseshoes. The Bud Lights were delicious, but apparently the game of horseshoes was too dirty for the women! :) Haha. So we just sat by the fire and talked till we were done with our drinks. We then headed to downtown SB for dinner at The Palace.

Great food and great wine. We had two bottles of 2002 Sunterra Syrah. It's made by Bion Rice from Sunstone, but the labeling has no mention of Sunstone on it at all anymore. It used to be called Sunstone Sunterra back in the day, but no more. It was cheap ($28/bottle) and good. Went well with my spicy jambalaya and our bread pudding dessert. Mmmmm ... good stuff all around. During dinner it started to rain so our drive home was a little wet, but we made good time anyway.

Overall it was a fantastic trip wine tasting. We probably won't be able to afford to go for a little while, with the new house and all. But I'm definitely looking forward to our next trip, as well as opening some of the wines we purchased until then.

Beckmen, Kalyra, Koehler, Consilience, and Andrew Murray

Yesterday we went up to Santa Ynez will a couple friends to reward ourselves with a busy weekend of packing. It was a great time, but it was PACKED. Every winery we went to had easily the most people we'd ever seen in there before, with the exception of Beckmen. Beckmen was about average ... which could've been because we went there first and the college kids had arrived yet, or just because it's off the beaten path ... who knows?

We started with Beckmen this time because it's usually one of the ones we go to later in the day and our palates tend to be destroyed by then. So we wanted to hit it right off and taste the wines with a fresh/clean palate.

2005 Beckmen Sauvignon Blanc, Purisima Mountain Vineyard
2005 Beckmen Marsanne, Purisima Mountain Vineyard
2005 Beckmen Le Bec Blanc
2005 Beckmen Grenache, Estate
2005 Beckmen Grenache, Whole Cluster
2004 Beckmen Syrah, Estate
2003 Beckmen Syrah, Purisima Mountain Vineyard
2004 Beckmen Syrah, Purisima Mountain Vineyard
2004 Beckmen Syrah, Clone #1 Purisima Mountain Vineyard
2005 Beckmen Syrah, Clone #1 Purisima Mountain Vineyard
2001 Beckmen Grenache, Late Harvest Purisima Mountain Vineyard

Wow. What a pouring menu! This was fantastic. They had everything open plus some. I'd never tasted the Whole Cluster Grenache or the Late Harvest Grenache before. Fantastic. It was great to taste the different vintages of the PMV Syrah side by side, as well as tasting the two vintages of the Clone #1 Syrah. Wow. The 2004 Clone #1 would be my wine of the room, but the Late Harvest Grenache would be number two. Great stuff. The 2005 Clone #1 should improve with a couple years to be even better that the 2004, but we'll see! It was interesting to taste the 2005 Whole Cluster Grenache, you can really taste the stems in it ... I've got a couple bottle of the 2004, so I think I'll continue to hold them for a little longer.

2004 Kalyra Chardonnay, Barrel Select
2005 Kalyra Gewurtzraminer
2005 Kalyra Merlot Rose
2004 Kalyra Zinfandel, Old Vine
2003 Kalyra Cabernet Sauvignon, McLaren Valley
2002 Kalyra Shiraz, Barossa Valley
2005 Kalyra Orange Muscat
NV Kalyra Muscat Port, 18 Year Old
NV Kalyra Brut Rose Sparkling Wine

Stay away ... stay far away. If you really want to try their wines, go buy them in the store. They're not expensive and the tasting room was like a frat house. It could've just been the three day weekend and the fact that there were two limos and one bus outside in the parking lot, but it was definitely not enjoyable. Really bad service as well. Wine of the room would have to be the Orange Muscat but I really don't know since I just gulped it down so we could leave sooner.

2005 Koehler Sauvignon Blanc, Estate
2005 Koehler Chardonnay, Estate
2005 Koehler Viognier, Estate
2005 Koehler Pinot Noir, Santa Barbara County
2005 Koehler Syrah, Estate
2004 Koehler Magia Nero, Estate

Wow was this place packed. There were more people here than were there during the Holiday party back in December. This was proof positive that everyone in SoCal decided to go wine tasting on this three day weekend. The owner of the winery was working in the tasting room, but again it was just so busy. The wines were great, I was slightly let down by the crowds, but hey ... no complaining, I just now know to stay away on three day weekends :) So we went to Los Olivos to get to Consilience and maybe one more after ...

2005 Consilience Rousanne, Santa Barbara County
2005 Consilience Grenache Rose, Santa Barbara County
2004 Consilience Grenache Noir "Rodney Shull Vineyard"
2005 Consilience Pinot Noir, Santa Barbara County
2005 Consilience Pinot Noir "Bien Nacido Vineyard"
2004 Consilience Syrah, Santa Barbara County
2004 Consilience Syrah "Star Lane Vineyard"
2004 Consilience Cabernet Sauvignon "Camp 4 Vineyard"
2004 Consilience Zinfandel "Rhodes Vineyard"
2002 Consilience Zinfandel Port, Dry Creek Valley Sonoma County

I was impressed with all of the wines here ... everything was great. Wish they were pouring the Petite Sirah that I bought last time I was there, but oh well. Both Syrah's were showing wonderfully. We didn't pick any bottles up cause we're trying to save $$, but if I did it would've been one of those, or both. Then we strolled down Grand Ave to Andrew Murray's tasting room right before they closed ... phew!

2005 Andrew Murray Viognier, Santa Ynez Valley
2004 Andrew Murray Enchante
2004 Oak Savanna Vineyards Chardonnay, Naked
2005 Oak Savanna Cellars Pinot Noir
2004 Andrew Murray Esperance
2004 Andrew Murray Syrah, Estate, Santa Ynez Valley
2004 Andrew Murray Syrah, Roasted Slope Vineyard
2005 Andrew Murray Syrah, Oak Savanna Vineyard
2005 Andrew Murray Viognier, Late Harvest

Great stuff again. The wine that really surprised me was the Roasted Slope Syrah ... it's a mix with about 5% Viognier that is grown in the vineyard with the syrah. So they are mixed together the whole time. The color on it was super dark ... couldn't see through it at all. Wonderful going down too! They were not pouring their Tous Les Jours Syrah, which was fine by me since I drink it frequently enough, but I just thought it was interesting. Probably just ship it all through their distributors. The place was a little too busy to ask how Andrew's involvement with the winery has changed over the years ... I'm still curious. He's obviously still the winemaker and in-charge, but maybe he sold controlling interest or something to some big company ... one of these days I'll find out! :)

Saturday Night

After packing up a bunch of boxes and taking a couple trips to goodwill to donate some stuff we were in need of some wine. Up first was a 2005 Andrew Murray Syrah Tous les Jours, which is pretty much a house wine for us now. And after that was a 2003 El Coto Rioja Crianza. Both were great and were a nice compliment to each other. The syrah has a little less spice than the Rioja and the color is much deeper/darker on the syrah. Both great buys for around the $10 range, the syrah was $12.50 and the Rioja was $9.50.

Tomorrow morning we're rewarding ourselves with a trip to Santa Ynez for day! :)

Rioja

So last night I picked up a bottle of Rioja from, of all places, Target. The only reason I did is because I'm interested in the region and don't have much, if any, experience with it. So it couldn't hurt to spend less than $10 on a cheap bottle right? The one I grabbed was a 2003 El Coto Rioja Crianza. For the record, it was 100% Tempranillo grapes (I'm not sure if all Riojas have to be or if they can blend). The wine was good. Nothing to rush out and buy cases of, but I may pick up another bottle next time I'm in Target. It had a little red fruit on the nose and palate as well as a slightly spicy finish. Decent stuff, especially for the $9.49 price tag.

Valentine's dinner

Every year for the past 3 or 4 years, my wife and I have opened a bottle of Sunstone Eros to enjoy w/ dinner. Whether it's taking it to a restaurant or opening it at home. So while I was finishing up preparing the meal we opened the 2000 Sunstone Eros ... first impression was the color. It had faded greatly to a smokey, muted hue that I think a lot of aged wines get (at least from my limited experience with 8 year old wine!) The flavor was great ... it still had a bit of fruit and very little tannins. It's definitely not a wine that you can hold onto for 25 years, but it seemed to be at it's peak or just passing it. Fantastic timing to pop it open.

And to follow that up we needed something to enjoy w/ dessert! So we opened a bottle of 2005 Michele Chiarlo Moscato d'Asti Nivole. Now for the $12 this cost and BevMo it's fantastic. The bubbles are just an added bonus! Light orange citrus notes and it complimented the chocolate lava cakes wonderfully. It's not too sweet a dessert wine, so it can go with food. Some dessert wines are dessert just in themselves, but this is a very nice one that can go with all sorts of sweets, fruits, or cheeses.

Klinker Brick and some Chianti

Last night we had a bottle of 2004 Klinker Brick Zinfandel Old Vine that we had gotten a couple month ago at 20/20 Wine for $15. It was pretty good, especially for the price. Then it was off to an Italian place for dinner ... unfortunately all the good Italian places had too long of a wait so we settled for Louise's Trattoria in Studio City. Ouch. Not good. Our pastas were so dry. We did have a decent bottle of wine though. A 2004 Poggio Basso Chianti Classico ($24) ... it had to have been one of the cheapest bottles on the menu (maybe the Yellow Tail was cheaper!) ... but it was decent. Nothing to complain about besides the food.

escrow and andrew murray

Well, we opened another one of our bottles of 2005 Andrew Murray Syrah Tous les Jours last night to celebrate us going into escrow. Decanted right before serving and it was just as good as last time.

Now we've just got to look forward to our first bottle of wine in the new house ... leaning towards the 2004 Sea Smoke Pinot Noir Southing that keeps begging to be opened :) Of course, it's got a $75 price tag (secondary market) ... so it better be damn good! We've had a taste or two of it once before, so we know it should be worth it. It won't actually be the first wine in the new house though, because we'll open a bottle (or two) of the champagnes that we brought back from our summer trip to Paris (and Reims).

Hey, Jerky!

Last night we went to a wine and jerky pairing at a local wine shop, Colorado Wine Company. We showed up a little late, so a lot of the jerky was gone, but we did have a little of BBQ Beef, Spicy Beef, Turkey, Curry Beef, Garlic Beef, Orange Beef, and Peppered Beef jerkies. All pretty good stuff, although the curry one was pretty bad. We also had a few different cheeses, but nothing that really stands out.

The wines we had were:

2005 Claiborne & Churchill Gewurtztraminer, Edna Valley
2004 Obsidian Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon, Red Hills Lake County
2003 Scott Harvey Zinfandel Old Vine, Amador County
2004 Terza Malbec, Mendoza Argentina
NV Opera Brut Champagne

Wine of the night went to the Scott Harvey Zinfandel. We'd had it once before and have liked it both times. The Malbec had enough tannins that it should probably lay down for a couple years before you drink it. The Gewurtztraminer was nice ... no residual sugar at all, so it was dry ... and it's made outside of San Luis Obispo ... good Alsacian style Gewurtz. The sparkler was 100% Chardonnay ... so it was dry, but it still had some fruit to it. The Obsidian Ridge Cab should just be skipped ... it's not too cheap ($25) and there's plenty of better CA cabs out there in that price range.

At the end of the event we bought a bottle of NV Domaine de Courbissac Minervois EOS. We actually only bought it because someone we were with liked the horse on the label. And this can be a lesson ... do not do this. The wine was bad. Just nothing good about it ... it was drinkable, but definitely not good. Fortunately we were able to wash it down with pizza from Casa Bianca, one of the best pizza places in the Los Angeles area ...