decanted

californication

Geez, would somebody please make up his mind? For the better part of the past year, we've been sharing our experience of drinking our way through different countries, by way of their grapes. A kind of around-the-world-in-as-long-as-it-takes...with a buzz. If you've been with us from the beginning, you might remember Tim's initial prejudice towards California reds. (Meghan may or may not have held similar preconceived notions, but elects to, more often than not, play good cop.)

But our trip to Sonoma last year, while not totally dispelling his bigotry, was eye-opening in that it let us discover some smaller wineries that take an artisan approach to their craft. These wines are almost always going to carry big fruit flavors. We learned that it's possible, however, with the right touch, to balance them out with depth and acidity in order to make a more elegant product. So some might think of us as being indecisive about Cali reds or others might just claim, "You lie!" We like to think we have increasingly fluid ideas about wine.

While the Lynmar Estate Pinot Noir we had last October was a good start, the 2002 Hanzell Vineyards Pinot Noir we drank the other night upped the ante for both California Pinot in general, and Sonoma Valley more specifically. This was by no means a perfect wine, but a terrific example of not overextending one's assets. That is to say, ripe fruit was abundant, but because of the care taken in making this wine, layers of herbs, stone and acidity mix to form a lovely, soft, balanced wine. The current release (2006) is priced at $95--without having tasted it, it's hard to comment, but let's just say the price for this vintage (about $70 online) is just about right. We rate this an 8.5 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!

big, fruity...and good?

If you've been following our little exploration of wine, you will not be surprised to hear that Tim is not a big fan of the California style of making wines. In general, he thinks big, overextracted, overripened fruit bombs that hit you over the head with their "style" are good for dessert, getting drunk and not much else. Then there's the additional problem of overpaying for wines from the Napa Valley, which is one of the most overpriced regions in the state, or maybe even on the planet. Think of it as the Ian Schrager hotel of the wine world-- lots of glitz, lots of glamor, not always worth the cost.

While fruit and alcohol may be the backbone of a wine, finesse and nuance take it to a different level. Many Napa reds we've tasted don't have much of the latter, but the 2001 Elyse Cabernet Sauvignon Morisoli Vineyard actually does. Its dark purple depths contain notes of leather and smoke as well as dried cherry, and it has a soft, elegant finish. For $69.99, we rate it a 7.5 out of 10.

not quite ready

We must admit we have not tasted as many Spanish wines as French or American or even Italian wines. But this is what decanted is all about:  sharing new experiences and learning from them. At one of our favorite DC wine stores, Addy Bassin's MacArthur Beverages, we selected the 2003 Aalto Ribera del Duero from Spain's northern plateau. Like most red wines from this region, the Aalto is made from the Tempranillo grape. Due to similarities in taste and structure, many experts once believed that tempranillo was related to one of our favorites, Pinot Noir, only to be discredited by those pesky geneticists. It was because of these similarities that we were very excited to try this example of Tempranillo.

Oftentimes, however, high expectations can lead to greater disappointment. The Aalto was a deep purple-colored wine with a strong smoky nose. What we tasted was a very tightly wound, tannic, toasty wine that got reasonably better with aeration (exposing it to air over time), but never really came out of its shell. Perhaps a few more years would do this wine well, but for $54.99 we gave this wine a disappointing 5.5 out of 10.

sonoma

After gorging ourselves and drinking a ton, it was time to head across the bridge and north to Sonoma County to, well, gorge ourselves and drink a ton. We were there mainly to taste Pinot Noirs and we did find a few that were good if not great. Two private tours/tastings were set up by a friend of ours, Josh Miles (a sales rep at Martin Scott Wines). Josh, being a Burgundy specialist, knows a great deal about this particular grape, so we were very much looking forward to his recommendations.

First we drove to Windsor to meet with Kathleen Inman of Inman Family Wines.  Kathleen told us she thought the Russian River Valley was a great place to grow Pinot Noir and that she feels any Pinot-based wine needs a good amount of acidity to give it balance. Tim couldn't agree with her more about the acidity--some of the better Burgundies he has tasted have needed a good deal of acidity in order to balance out the wine and even contribute to its complexity. We tasted a Rosé, a Pinot Gris and two Pinot Noirs, eventually deciding to buy a bottle of 2006 Inman Family Thorn Road Ranch Pinot Noir. What we tasted was a lot of sour cherry and some other berry fruits along with some leather, but mostly just a very nice, fairly fruity, soft, balanced wine. At $52 a relatively good buy in our minds. In our book, worthy of a 6.0 out of 10.

Next up was Scherrer Winery in Sebastapol. Fred Scherrer gave us a grand tour of his wine making facility, fed us some delicious lamb burgers left over from an open house the day before and let us sample 10 or so different bottles. We were most impressed with his Rosé which unfortunately for us was sold out. Most of the wines we tasted were good not great, but we both felt Fred was very close to making terrific wines and we will keep him on our radar.

san francisco

So we decided to take a trip to California to see our good friend Greg Berman (see picture on left) and also so we could challenge Tim's deep-seated feeling that all Cali wines are crap. While we weren't convinced that the region is competitive with the best in the world (we'll get to those), we did debunk the aforementioned idea of poo. We still think Oregon is the best place for American Pinot Noir, but we discovered that the Russian River Valley is an acceptable alternative. In general, the fruit was bright and prevalant but not overextracted (overripened) like many of the Pinots from Carneros and Santa Barbara County.

But before we went to wine country, we needed to spend some time in San Francisco doing the things that help to make us who we are:  eating and drinking. We stopped at a little wine shop called Ruby Wine and picked up a bottle of 2007 Chateau Ducasse Bordeaux Blanc for $16.99 and a bottle of 2005 Regis Bouvier Gevrey-Chambertin for $69.99.

We drank some wine with Greg and his girlfriend Laura, watched the fog roll over the mountains to the area where he used to live and just relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. The Chateau Ducasse was a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle grapes and was not particularly offensive or interesting. A very blah 5.0 out of 10 which was fine considering our mindsets (vacation).

Gevrey-Chambertin is one of our favorite places to find "bargains" in Burgundy. It's true that most great and even truly good Burgundies are ridiculously expensive and probably overpriced, but we have found some relatively decent values in this region. As with all red wines of Burgundy, it is 100% Pinot Noir and as with any good Burgundy, good fruit and good acidity to match. This was not a velvety soft wine, but had good balance and changed several times during each taste. A solid 6.5 out of 10.

Greg then took us over to A16 where his friend, Liza Shaw, made us a terrific meal and we got to know a very interesting 2003 Binomio Montepulciano d'Abruzzo for $70.00 (yours for about $45.00 in a wine store). A fairly robust and tannic wine, it definitely needed time to mellow and when it did, it was delightfully full and funky and chewy. A 7.0 out of 10 that we might have scored higher if we bought it in a store for $45.00.