Archives for January, 2006
Gnarly Head Old Vine Zin 2004 (C)
This very basic and simple wine gets a very basic and simple description. This is a medium bodied, somewhat mild zin containing the basic zin characteristics. A little smoke on the nose, jammy, lightly fruity, modest taste of cherry and licorice, mild tannins. Very modest but easily drinkable and smooth. A basic everyday red. I didn’t buy it but I think it retails for $10-12. I wish it was a couple bucks cheaper but I’ll buy it again at this price if I want something simple and easy.
How We Rate (Grade) Wines (or Not) (Or Do)
updated 06/13/06 - Fuck it. I’m using grades again. The points made in the stricken paragraph below are still valid but grades are really helpful when browsing the notes while considering purchasing previously tasted wines, and/or when making a recommendation to someone. It’s not like most people don’t realize these things are subjective and mostly worthless to anyone except the author.
updated 03/27/06 - We’re reconsidering the use of grades or any other kind of rating. We started out using the system described below but quickly began questioning it’s value. We think it might be more interesting to simply talk in general terms about our experiences rather than trying to fit every wine into a category. There are too many variables that come into play with each bottle and tasting session and it’s likely our impressions will change with circumstances.
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Maybe I don’t have a sophisticated tongue but I don’t need a 20-40 point scale to rate wines. Most wines fall into just a few categories for me:
I hate it. (F)
I don’t like it. (D)*
I like it. (C)
I like it a lot. (B)
I love it. (A)
The use of pluses and minuses is simply to add or subtract emphasis.
Of course, there’s another question that begs asking: Why bother rating wines? Especially since I am in no way attempting to compare them against any kind of known standard or measure? The answer is simple. My sole intent in posting these notes is to keep track of what I like. The grades are simply a shorthand allowing an at-a-glance reminder of my impressions and preferences. I don’t have the knowledge, experience or desire to do more than that.
* What happened to (E)? I don’t know but in case you hadn’t noticed, the A to F sans E grade scale is what is typically used in public schools and as a victim of such this system is ingrained.
Capcanes “Mas Donis Barrica” 2003 (C+)
From Montsant, Spain this 80% garnacha, 20% syrah was highly rated (92 points from Parker and 90 from the Wine Advocate) but I don’t see it. It was a complete impulse purchase. I bought it based solely on the blend and the fact that of all the wines in the section it was the only one that was almost sold out.
To get to the point: medium body, ruby color, subtle nose of cherry and… peat? Smooth, dry texture and light tannins. More cherry on the tongue with some noticeable mild oak. It’s actually very nice and drinkable. $10 at the Farmer’s Market and worth keeping a few on hand for every day drinking.
Wines I Want To Try
2004 Pillar Box Red ($11)
2004 Finca Luzon Verde, Jumilla, SP($8)
Anakena 2005 ?Ona,? Chile ($15)
Edmunds St John Wines (??)
2002 Davis Bynum, Russian River Valley Pinot Noir ($28)
Peirano’s The Other Red 2004 ($12)
Terre Rouge Vin Gris d’Amador 2003 ($10-$13)
Hewitson Ned & Henry’s Barossa Shiraz 2004 ($20?)
The Clape wines described by Alder at Vinography
Bonny Doon 2003 Old Telegraph (Mourvedre)
Unti Petite Sirah 2003 (A-)
I can’t believe Unti is not more widely known. We stumbled on the Dry Creek Valley winery a couple years ago and have been back two more times. Each time George Unti was in the tasting room pouring for us.
This Petite Sirah is a little lighter than I have come to expect from Unti but it’s loaded with style and class. Extremely well balanced, smooth body and texture, wonderful inky purple color, subtly spicy with mellow, black cherry and anise flavors. As with most Unti wines, it’s hard not to drink too much too fast.
Vida Organica Malbec Rose 2005 (C+)
Almost no nose - maybe a hint of earth if you try hard enough. Very light body, slightly tart, mildly tannic, extremely subtle strawberry and orange flavor. A slight wine that I could easly drink like iced tea. At $10 (Whole Paycheck) I will only buy it if there’s not something better available but if it were $6 I’d buy a case or two for the summer.
d’Arenberg d’Arry’s Original Shiraz Grenache 2002 (B)
I bought this 50/50 shiraz/grenache blend soon after trying the Tres Picos 100% Garnacha which I thought might be a great example of a typical grenache wine. I wanted to see if I could discern the difference between the two grapes. I think I can but it’s hard to describe.
I think the shiraz is more prominent (jam and spice) but the grenache (smokey leather) can’t be missed. It has the kind of aroma that makes me want to stick my nose in the glass and just leave it there: spicy licorice, smoke, caramel and black cherry. It’s full-bodied and I tasted chocolate and cherry with a slight sweetness. I’d buy it again at $17.
Taurino Notarparno 1999 (D)
My friend Polly has often expressed dismay at a wine quality that she dislikes that she claims can be found in a lot of European wines, specifically in some of the Rhone style wines that I like but also in a lot of Italian wines. She describes the quality as antiseptic but I think she means medicinal. In many wines where she senses this, I don’t so I have never been sure I get exactly what she’s referring to. With this wine we’ve found a strong example and we are in agreement.
When my wife, Pam, tasted this wine she almost spit it out. She insisted it was bad and even went so far as to rinse her mouth out. I don’t think it was bad at all but instead had a very strong antiseptic/medicinal taste when first opened. It was almost like an overwhelming sense of alcohol. This taste mellowed after several minutes but never went away. If it weren’t so prominent I would have loved this wine. It has many of the qualities I like in a hearty red: plum, black cherry, licorice, and a dark purple color with strong tannins. You could almost chew it. Alas, the medicinal quality prevailed and remained dominant. I’ll pass on it next time. It was $15 at Tower.
Borsao Tres Picos Garnacha 2004 (C+)
When I first caught a whiff of this in the glass it smelled like sweat. Not a musky sweat but more like a several day old funky sweetness. Not so much offensive or bad as slightly disomforting. Fortunately, it mellowed quickly.
This wine grew on me. I think what I was really smelling was leather, perhaps wet leather at first but thankfully more like suede after breathing a few minutes. I liked it even better the second day. My final impression was of a medium body, silky sweet, vanilla and plum (red not black). I think this might be a decent example of a 100% grenache. It was a staff favorite at Ansley Wine Merchants ($12).
Quivira Steelhead Red 2003 (B-)
I visited Quivira a few years ago. I enjoyed their wines in the tasting room but not enough to buy more than a bottle or two. I don’t remember specifically what I tried but I do recall that when I opened the bottles at home I didn’t enjoy them as much as I thought I would. I want to like Quivira wines, partly because they make some Rhone varietals which I’m drawn to but also because they are a small winery that claims to make artisinal wines (plus they have really cool name).
Tonight I tried the 2003 Steelhead Red ($17), a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Zinfandel and Mourvedre - a mixture with my name on it. It’s a bit thinner and more subtle then I was expecting. Fruity and floral, a small amount of spice and strawberries with subtle tannins. Overall a very nice wine but why am I disappointed? I guess I was expecting, and hoping for, a bolder wine. I like a hearty or robust wine and this was almost delicate. A definite thumbs up but… I was hoping it would bowl me over. Foiled by my expectations, I suppose.
Who Are We and What Do We Know About Wine?
We are a small group of humans located in Atlanta, GA and Asheville, NC. None of us claim to be wine snobs, vignerons, enologists or any kind of wine professional but we do have a tendency to get a little foolish. While some of us have been drinking wine for more than twenty years, and a few have just started, we all have recently decided to pay a little more attention to what we drink and why. We gather occasionally to drink wine and sometimes manage to stay sober enough to talk about it and remember a few things the next day. We also have been known to visit wine country periodically, mostly in northern California but a few of us have made it to Italy a couple times.
The main purpose of this site is for us to share tasting notes and other opinions and ideas about wine but we hope to keep the conversations general enough to be of interest to anyone who stumbles upon the site. We hope visitors will participate by adding comments to our posts and if we make any new friends we’re always open to the idea of adding team members (that’s a blogger expression - we prefer to think of ourselves as fellow fools).
I’m the resident loud mouth and so you will likely hear from me more than the others. I started drinking wine in the mid-eighties while working for a catering company that worked Napa County wine events. I’ve been drinking wine ever since (and boy am I getting tipsy) but didn’t really start paying close attention to what I was drinking until a few years ago. Several subsequent visits to Sonoma County have resulted in a strong bias for wines from that region but I enjoy drinking and learning about wines from around the world. I’m particularly drawn to hearty, full bodied, fruity reds but I also like subtle, earthy wines (my favorites tend to include qualities of both fruit and earth but whose don’t?). I like wine enough that I’ve got some opinions about how it can be enjoyed and so I’ll also use this site to bloviate some. Don’t be shy about talking back: challenging comments and feedback are not only welcome but encouraged.
– Erwin Dink, Wine Fool