decanted

cheap and easy drinkin'

The 2008 Oyster Bay Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc isn’t going to knock anyone’s socks off. But for $13.99 or thereabouts, it doesn’t have to. We like its lemony tartness and crisp, dry finish, and particularly enjoy sipping it on a warm summer night. (Yeah, our timing is a little off on that one. Happy Halloween!)  

Other plusses: it’s easy to find, closes with a screwcap so will last longer in the fridge after it’s opened (see our 8/17/09 post for more on our abiding love of screwcaps), and appears on the wine list of one of our favorite restaurants, Mandu. If you’re looking for a fun white to drink with light chicken, fish, or vegetarian meals, give it a whirl. Taking its attractive price tag into consideration, we rate it a 6.5 out of 10.

you never know...

We've always been skeptical of Virginia wines. But we recently read some positive reviews by a local wine blogger, Allan of CellarBlog, whose posts we enjoy and respect. Also, our friends Karen and Luis invited us to spend this past weekend out in Virginia wine country. We took both occurrences as a sign that we should revisit our long-held and much-cherished, but possibly unfair, prejudice against all American wines not made on the West Coast.

So we stopped in at beautiful Linden Vineyards in Linden, Va., for a tasting. (Forgot the camera, unfortunately, so you'll just have to imagine it.) A very nice woman poured us

a 2008 Seyval (made from a French-American hybrid grape, Seyval Blanc), a 2006 Claret, a 2006 Petit Verdot, and 2008 Vidal Riesling. The Seyval and the Petit Verdot, in particular, surprised/impressed us. The former had well-balanced fruit flavors of grapefruit and lemon, and its bright acidity made it very drinkable. The meaty Petit Verdot smelled and tasted of coffee and earth, with a long, satisfying finish.

We didn't buy either of these because, at $20 and $28, we felt they were slightly too expensive for what they were. However, we would be happy to drink them again and felt encouraged about Virginia wines in general. Going to one vineyard once doesn't give us a complete view, obviously, so we plan to try more eventually. Stay tuned. 

something different

We didn't know what to expect from this 2007 Cornarea Roero Arneis, but decided to give it a shot. Arneis is a white grape from northern Italy, and apparently its name means "whimsical" in a Piedmontese dialect. Definitely an accurate description.

This wine is thick and viscous, and changes several times in one sip. It probably works best with food, which would help tame its many layers. We detected a slight effervescence and a piney, almost woodsy taste. It also has some ginger and a little bit of sweetness, and its flavors tend to go on for a long time.

We found the Cornarea to be offbeat and interesting, with a strong backbone. It's not for everyone, but we would recommend it to anyone looking to try something new. We picked it up for $19.99 at Schneider's of Capitol Hill, here in DC, and would give it a 7.5 out of 10.

mystery guest

Apologies for our absence--we've been on vacation in the Pacific Northwest. Where, by the way, we went to a great Seattle wine and food store called The Spanish Table. It's near Pike Place Market and specializes in, you guessed it, Spanish wines.

Before we left for our trip, though, we tried an interesting white blend from Morocco, the 2007 Zniber Les Troix Domaines Guerrouane Blanc. It took us a while to figure out the short burst of fruitiness at the end of each sip, but eventually we identified it as honeydew or honeysuckle. There's also a hint of both bitterness and chalkiness at the end. It starts out dry, unlike most of the whites we tend to choose, which usually start fruity and finish dry.

This was something of a mystery wine--we found very little about it online, aside from this CNBC article on Zniber Vineyards. But we do know that we got it at Whole Foods for $13.99, that it's very light, and that it would make sense with (naturally) Mediterranean food. We rate it a 6.5 out of 10.

rully bully

As we mentioned in a recent post, the Côte Chalonnaise region at the southern tip of Burgundy is an excellent place to find good deals. In Rully, an area within the Côte Chalonnaise, you can come across some very nice whites. The winemakers there use methods similar to the wineries in the Côte de Beaune, which is where many of the big-time (usually expensive) whites like Chassagne-Montrachet come from. In other words, Rullys are (often) the poor man'sCôte de Beaunes.

Case in point: the 2006 Vincent Gerardine Rully Blanc 1er Cru Les Cloux. Like most white Burgundies, this one is made from 100% Chardonnay grapes. It's aged mostly in stainless steel casks, along with just enough new French oak to give it the classic Rully toastiness. But it's not oaky and bears about as much resemblance to a typical California Chardonnay as Classic Coke did to New Coke.

This is definitely a rich, round wine--not ideal for casual sipping or cocktail hour. Its subtle tropical fruit notes would make it a good companion for pork, game birds, or high-oil-content fish like king salmon or mackerel. Lobster, the traditional pairing for high-end white Burgundies, would be great. So if you want to blow all your money on a few choice lobsters, go ahead, because this bottle is a serious bargain. For $18.99, we'll give it an 8.0 out of 10.

the ridges of sonoma county

We have a confession to make: we're generally not big (R.I.P., Andre) on Zinfandels. Most wines range from 13% to 14.5% alcohol, while Zins can contain as much as 15% or 16%. That doesn't sound like a big difference, but it can change the wine's composition enough that winemakers will often overemphasize the fruit to try and balance out the alcohol. As a result, many Zins are highly acidic fruit bombs.

Not the 2007 Ridge Sonoma County Three Valleys. This $17.99 blend of Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Syrah, Grenache, and Carignane grapes surprised us with its nice plummy fruitiness. It's also only 14.3% alcohol. The label advertises it as a "red table wine" and that's exactly what it is--not a special-occasion wine, but great for a casual dinner.

It would work well with tenderloin. Probably not with gamier meats or more flavorful cuts like hangar steak or ribeye--doesn't have the structure to stand up to them. Along with plum, we also tasted some dark cherry. All in all, when measured against other California reds, the Ridge is a very good deal. It gets an 8.0 out of 10 in our book.

A quick word about Ridge--this is a solid maker whose wines are generally well crafted, although they tend to be a little on the pricey side. (The Three Valleys Zin is on their low end.) They're particularly known for their Cabs and Zins.

the screwcap letters

Don't be afraid of the screwcap! Many wineries are now using metal screw-on tops instead of corks, which freaks some people out. It's true that uncorking a bottle is a nice ritual, but it's no fun to have your wine ruined by the mold that occasionally grows on corks. (This is known as being "corked", which more specifically refers to the presence of TCA--2,4,6 Trichloroanisole--we know, we know, really interesting.) Screwcaps remove this possibility.

They also affect the aging process differently than corks do, so it's best to buy screwcap wines that don't need to be aged. (Not a problem for us, as aged wines tend to be out of our price range anyway.)

The most recent screwcap we've tried was a 2007 Hirsch Grüner Veltiner #1 from Austria. If you're an avid decanted reader, you'll know that we think highly of this grape. Grüners are great for sipping by themselves or enjoying with chicken and fish. They're complex enough to be interesting, with a slight pepperiness and just a little bit of effervescence.

The Hirsch delivered. Its lemony flavors didn't overpower the pepper notes, and its glycerin-y texture and fatness on the tongue were both classic Gruner Veltliner. Plus, its screwcap would have made it easy for us to keep it in our fridge for a couple of weeks without a noticeable change in taste. It didn't last that long, though-- we polished it off the next night. Taking its $14.99 price into account (inexpensive, but not as cheap as the Hugo Grüner Veltliner we reviewed a couple months ago) we give it a 7.5 out of 10.

sweet ride

Rieslings tend to be thought of as sweet wines, but that reputation is a bit overblown. Many fall more on the dry side of the palate, and it's really mostly the late-harvest ones (used as dessert wines) that fit the sweet category. Both are tasty. However, the sweetness myth means Rieslings are sometimes not taken seriously as wines to enjoy with food. We find this unfortunate.

Just to confuse matters, we're going to tell you about a 2007 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett (10 points for memorizing that) from Germany that isn't officially a dessert wine, but that actually is pretty sweet. The richness of this one is definitely not for everyone. It's got strong notes of pear and honey and a lemony finish. But the sugar flavors don't overwhelm the wine, because they stop before your sip is over and leave you with that nice, tart end. The Selbach-Oster (like other, typically drier Rieslings) would be especially good paired with barbecue or Asian food. While we usually believe it's hard to excel at two different things (see Michael Jordan's baseball career) this $23.99 wine is an exception: It could work equally well with dessert. We rate it a 7.0 out of 10.

the linda (and the Caps)

There was a time we thought that the only reasonably good wine you could find for under $10 would be of the white variety. Though we're not close to subscribing to Tim's dad's belief that no single bottle should fetch more than a Hamilton, we did recently come across a great deal on a reasonably good red wine. Made from grapes grown in Argentina's fertile province of Mendoza, the 2006 Luigi Bosca Finca la Linda Tempranillo represents much of what we think table wine should be: robust and tannic with a good mix of ripe fruit and spice, all the while not being overly complex. In other words, a table wine should be easy to drink and not make you think a whole lot about doing so. This 100% Tempranillo sipper gulper won't blow your socks off, but it won't blow a hole in your wallet either. On sale for $6.99, it earns a 6.0 out of 10. So if you're like Tim (we know that's not likely) and you're home chewing on some small game, lamenting the reasons why only one of the Washington Capitals was named an All-Star, take our word for it. Reach into your jar filled with change that you started to contribute to when you got your first apartment, grab 28 quarters and pick up a bottle. In just a short while you'll be a happy camper.

old world italian

As anyone who has taken middle school science knows, our sense of taste is closely linked to our sense of smell. When we like the way something hits our nose, chances are we're also going to like the way it tastes.

This 2007 Fratelli Revello Barbera d'Alba has a lot going for it, in our book, because it smells like one of our favorite foods: cheese. Our brother-in-law Simon Tiffen noticed this before either of us did, and went even further by narrowing down its scent to that of a nice Manchego or Parmesan.

In addition to the weird but fun sensation of smelling cheese in a wine, the Barbera offers a soft layering of leather, tobacco, and cherry notes. It made Meghan think of a study filled with antique books and cigars. Tim noticed a chewy finish brought on by a combination of dryness and tannins, which were minimal but well-structured. With its Piedmont region pedigree, it provides satisfying old-world flavor at an affordable $14.99 price. We rate it an 8.0 out of 10.

break out the bubbly

Being partial to fizzy beverages, we tend to believe they're criminally overlooked for most of the year. But no one forgets about the bubbly stuff on New Year's Eve. So here are some suggestions of sparklers we like for every budget. As with all of our posts, the prices listed here are approximate and may vary at your local wine store or online retailer.

• Recession Buster. Casteller Cava Brut N.V. (Non-Vintage) from the Catalonia region of Spain. A steal at $8.99, especially if you're going to go through cases of it.
• A Step Up. Gruet Blanc de Noirs N.V. from New Mexico, good ol' USA, for $13.99. Who knew the Southwest--of the U.S.--could produce such a reliably strong sparkling wine?
• The Real Deal. Pol Roger Brut Reserve N.V., from where else, the Champagne region of France. $39.99. Now we're getting into the good stuff. Our favorite for special occasions.
• Pinks Have More Fun. Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé N.V., also from Champagne. $69.99 if you're lucky. Shop around for a good deal. And to all you macho types, don't fear the pink--you can pull it off.
• Going for Broke. Krug Grande Cuvée Brut N.V., Champagne, $159.99. If you're one of the lucky few who still has lots of cash to throw around, grab one of these and a half-kilo of Beluga caviar, and call it a night.

Any of these picks will help you celebrate in style. Happy New Year!

groo nah velt lye nah

Part of the fun of drinking a Grüner Veltliner lies in saying the name of the grape. (It works best if you give it a little Ah-nold spin. Try it!)

But another great thing about this white wine most commonly made in Austria is its refreshing taste and often low, low cost. Even the best Grüners are rarely priced above $50, and most of them can be found for $25 and under. In fact, we snagged this 2006 Huber Hugo Gruner Veltliner for $8.99. Designophiles will be seduced by its clean, colorful label, and those suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder won't exactly mind its summery, lemony flavor. The Hugo's yeasty scent resembles champagne's. It has some of the dryness of a Sauvignon Blanc. And there's also a bit of minerality lurking within its fatty texture.

This wine doesn't quite have the depth or pleasant pepperiness of some of the Grüners we've enjoyed in the past. But for $8.99, we'll take it, and give it a 7.0 out of 10.

pound for pound...

Sports are full of analogies, hyperbole and pretty much anything that you can fill a column or 3 hour time segment up with on your local network. While some of this very specialized language can go down as filler and fluff, or even down-right ridiculousness, occasionally there is a group of words that come together that sounds perfect to even the most cynical ears. Enter the phrase, "pound for pound."

This expression was originally coined by sportswriters describing Sugar Ray Robinson. They thought he was the greatest fighter of the time who could dispatch anyone from his weight class or below. He was not a sure bet against a bigger opponent, but that was due to his lesser size and strength, not inferior skills. Simply put, in terms of pure quality as a boxer, he was the best.

Which brings us to Martinelli's Gold Medal Apple Juice. Made from apples grown in California's Pajaro Valley, this delicious libation is the stuff of legend, like Sugar Ray Robinson. It's the absolute purest transformation of fruit to liquid imaginable. Pound for pound, the greatest non-alcoholic beverage on the planet. How's that for hyperbole. $7.99 for a 6-pack of 10-ounce bottles and sheer bliss.

portugese, please

We've gotten quite a few requests from friends and family to cover more lower-priced wines. Cheap bastards! No, just kidding. We definitely understand the importance of being able to go into a wine store and come out of it without an empty wallet. (Or money clip. Tim is really into his money clip.)

So in the interest of saving ourselves and anyone who might be following this blog from imminent bankruptcy, we tried a $12.99 bottle of 2006 Quinta do Feital Auratus from Portugal. This straw-colored blend of 50% Alvarinho (the same grape as the Spanish Albariño) and 50% Trajadura grapes was a terrific aperitif wine-- really bright and interesting. Its glycerin-y texture, high level of acidity, and apple flavors worked together nicely. It had some substance to it, which you can't always say about a sub-$15 white. You could pair it with goat cheese, much like a Sancerre, or with the traditional Albariño partner, oysters.

Of course, if you're having oysters, you might be throwing the whole budget idea out the window. But hey--at least you'll be drinking good wine while doing so. We give this one an 8.0 out of 10.

the great root beer challenge

When we were kids, it used to be that no one wanted to be a nerd. There were movies and tv shows about them and ways to dress to ensure your standing as a non-nerd. Virtually all the cool kids were athletic and good looking, if not terribly clever or nice. Ahhh, but those days are thankfully behind us, and geek chic is no longer a passing fad. Now television shows have their heroes as members of the Nerd Herd, and eyeglasses are a fashion statement. All that being said, we're nerds. And being nerds, we watch sci-fi tv shows like J.J. Abrams' latest show, Fringe.

Which brings us to our reason for holding a headache-inducing (more on that later) root beer taste test. The Fringe character Walter Bishop, a brilliant paranormal scientist and former mental patient, had a very strong urge to drink a root beer upon his release after 17 years at St. Claire's Mental Hospital. Now Tim found an instant connection with this character, because of his tendency to have his extremely strong brain activity misunderstood as insanity. So Tim thought it would be a good idea to try out different root beers and see which ones came out on top. And Meghan, who has never been afraid of a challenge, decided she should be included in this important scientific experiment.

With the help of our friends, Matt and Lauren Biel, we went to over 20 stores and procured 16 different types of root beer. The prices ranged from $.99 for a 2-liter bottle to $2.00 for a 16-ounce bottle, and the packaging varied from the humble cans we remember from our childhood to slick bottles that more resemble microbrew beers. The lineup was as follows:  Main Street (Giant brand), Parker's (Safeway brand), Mug, A&W, Natural Brew, Stewart's, Virgil's, Sioux City, Maine Root, Dominion, Boylan's, IBC, Sprecher, Barq's, 365 (Whole Foods brand) and Dr. Brown's. We then held a very serious blind tasting at Matt and Lauren's dining room table.

The first several sips went down nicely, but after that things got slightly out of hand. Some of us forgot to pace ourselves, and we all got woozy and headache-y from the sugar rush. Spitting it out like you can do in a wine tasting didn't seem appropriate, so we pressed on valiantly. There were a few discreet burps. We won't get into all the gory details, but let's just say that tasting 16 root beers in one sitting is not as easy as it sounds.

However, all the effort was completely worth it. Using a Tim-devised process whose complexity rivaled that of the BCS bowl system, we were able to determine a clear winner and some worthy runner-ups.

Our #1 pick: IBC. While only Tim was blown away by it in the first round of tasting, by the second and final round the IBC moved up in everyone's estimation. Its spiciness appealed to all four tasters, and it wasn't overly sweet. Placing a surprising second was 365, the Whole Foods brand. Trust us--we didn't think this one would be that good either. But it held its own. In Lauren's words, it was "dark, rich, not too sweet."

Third place went to the one boutique-y candidate that made it into our top 4: Sioux City. We tasted lots of peppermint and sassafras--it was just very root beerish. Nice bottle too. And our fourth place winner was another mass-market bargain brew: Mug. "A hint of clove," noted Matt. "Perfect for ice cream." We're not sure how he could have been thinking about more sugar at a time like this, but we applaud his stamina.

After all that, we Googled root beer and found out that despite having combed the Washington, DC, area for every root beer we could find, there are still dozens of brands we didn't try. You know what this means. Coming sometime in the distant future: The Great Root Beer Challenge, Part II.

keep it p.g.

Don't turn up your nose at pinot grigio! As with many other grapes, this one (also known as pinot gris, depending what country you're in) has been made badly by many wineries, and its reputation has unfairly suffered the consequences. (Not quite to the extent that poor Chablis and Merlot have, which we'll get into in some future posts.) Many drinkers seem to view it as a lightweight, to be consumed only at wedding receptions and office parties. Sort of like the Cosmopolitan of wines.

We beg to differ. Last night we tried a 2006 Jermann Pinot Grigio and found that it worked very nicely as an aperitif. Tim detected hints of peach, and both he and Meghan thought it was a flowery wine, almost like drinking a perfume. (But better. Definitely better.) It has a pleasant amount of acidity and is made from 100% Pinot Grigio grown in the Friuli region of Italy. At $22.99, we rate it a 6.0 out of 10.

old white guy

We have few opportunities to try aged white wines--they just don't tend to be as readily available as two or three-year-old whites. When Tim came across this 1998 López de Heredia Viña Gravonia Blanco Crianza at Addy Bassin's MacArthur Beverages, he picked it up out of curiosity. It's a $23.99 white Rioja, made from 100% Viura grapes (and organic ones, at that) at the family-owned López de Heredia winery.

We sipped it at home a few hours later and felt surprised by the oakiness sitting right in the middle of it. The taste is definitely not as subtle as French oak (it was aged in American barrels) but it's not as blatant as California-style oak. Like many oaky Chardonnays, especially California ones, it contains some hints of vanilla and creaminess. But it doesn't end like a chard; it's more acidic. After much debate, we identified the hard-to-pin-down fruit note as orange.

This isn't an unbelievably crafted wine. But the age on it gives it a few tricks up its sleeve that are hard to find in a younger bottle. We rate it as a 6.5.

orvieto classico

Do you know what tufa is? We didn't either, until we tasted and researched this 2004 Palazzone Campo del Guardiano Orvieto Classico Superiore. Apparently tufa is a kind of limestone common in the Orvieto region of central Italy. Along with the area's volcanic soil, the tufa helps give the white wines produced there a distinctive look and taste.

We noted much toastiness and traces of almonds in this superdry Orvieto Classico, which was made from a blend of 50% Procanico grapes, 25% Grechetto, and 25% Verdello, Drupeggio, and Malvasia. It was quite full-bodied (definitely not a shy wallflower type) and had a beautiful golden color that we weren't expecting.  While it was not a particularly good match for our takeout Chinese dinner the other night, it would go well with higher-oil-content fish such as salmon. It also made Meghan crave biscotti--maybe that was the almond flavors talking. At a very reasonable $19.99, a 6.5 out of 10.

cooking wine

Don't laugh (at the title of this post). Back when Tim was in culinary school, his instructor told him to never use wine for cooking that he wouldn't be ok with drinking. Enter the 2007 Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc Riserva. This $8.99 wine (available at Whole Foods among other places) is made from 100% Sauvignon Blanc grapes grown in the Casablanca Valley of Chile. Plenty of citrus fruit, along with melon and even some minerality. There is enough going on in this straw-colored wine to justify another $10-$15 more in price, so we give it a well-earned 7.0 out of 10.

good value sancerre

So maybe your stocks aren't doing so well, but you still want something nice with dinner. This 2006 Matthias et Emile Roblin Sancerre that we had at home last night is a good bet. Meghan tasted notes of lemon, stone, mineral, and that classic Sancerre flintiness. Tim detected limestone, grassiness, and the aforementioned lemon. This wine, made from 100% Sauvignon Blanc, is definitely on the drier side and it stays on the tongue for a while. For a Sancerre it's fairly fat on the mouth, but does not have the glycerin-y element of some of the southern Loire wines. It would stand well on its own and also paired well with our dinner of roasted chicken, broccoli, and potatoes.

One important thing about this one--as with most white wine, it's definitely better at around 55-60 degrees rather than fresh out of the fridge. Cold it's perfectly fine, but when left out to warm up a little its flavors really ripen. This wine reinforces our belief that when in doubt about whites, you can always find a nice, affordable Sancerre. At $19.99, it's a great bargain--we give it (drumroll, please) an 8.5 out of 10.