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.

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.

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.

wine

We really, really like wine. And, let's face it, we both like to hear our own voices. We started decanted as a place to think and talk about wine, and maybe even help a friend or two who is looking for suggestions or to join our conversation. We plan to mostly discuss wine, but will occasionally throw in some curveballs, such as thoughts on our other favorite things (various liquid refreshments, candy, random foods). We'll use a scale from 0-10 for wine and will take value into account. That is to say, a wine may be given a bump up if it is a bargain, but good wine is good wine, and price will not greatly affect the overall score.

So, you know when you go to the liquor/wine store and look around and you're thinking you want to get something nice but you don't know what to get. So you talk to somebody and they ask, "How much do you want to spend?" And you say, "I don't know, $25." Some random bottle of red or white or pink is picked out for you and you ask a series of follow up questions that are more often than not affirmed (i.e., "Will this go well with my lamb dish?", "I don't like my whites oaky. It's not too oaky, is it?", or for some of the newbies out there, "Sooo, this is good?"). Then you get home and you open the bottle and you taste it and think that the guy at the store must have been high or lying or both because the rotgut you're drinking tastes like the bastardly combo of Manischewitz and the box wine you drink at church.

Or perhaps you know a little bit more about wine. You've drank some in your time and might even be able to describe a wine if asked to--as long as you don't have to use words such as unctuous or precocious. If handed a wine list with no prior knowledge of what might be on the menu, you could safely land on a nice Sancerre or California Cab. You may have heard of Robert Parker and might even pay attention if you hear a wine nerd talking to a sommelier or knowledgeable salesperson.

Then there are those of you who really love wine and devote a little too much time (probably) and resources (definitely) to the pursuit of your addiction. You might have heard of Eric Asimov and may subscribe to one or more publications devoted to wine. You can usually tell the difference between a Grüner Veltliner and a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and maybe even correctly choose which Pinot Noir is from California and which one is from Oregon. Receiving the wine list at a restaurant is a joy and you often feel that it is your duty to take on this daunting task in order to heighten the pleasure of your fellow diners (and yourself).

Whichever category you fall under, this blog is a good place for you to visit. Whether you want to learn more about certain varietals, discuss differences in vintages, compare tasting notes or simply get a good recommendation for your next visit to the store, check back often because we do drink our fair share of wine.