2012 Dr Konstantin Frank - Old Vines Pinot Noir Finger Lakes, NY

My first ever visit to a wine growing region included a visit to this winery, which has been a leader in producing world class wines since Dr Frank was the first in believing that Vinifera grapes could be grown in this area during the early 50's. They also were the first to make a quality Champagne in this region from the 3 traditional grapes used in France.

As I came through the front door of the winery I became aware that there was a heated discussion going on behind closed doors. I tried to be quiet and was taking a look around the tasting room area when the door to that back room flew open... Willy, son of Dr Frank came storming out and disappeared into the back of the winery, a minute later his son, Frederick came through the door and noticed me standing in the corner.

He asked me how long I'd been there, I guess from the look on my face he knew I'd heard the gist of the discussion. Fred apologized for me having to hear that, I told him that these things happen... winemaking involves passion and a belief in what you're doing.

This estate continues to produce world class dry, and off dry Rieslings, and Pinot Noir. They also produce good Champagne under the Chateau Frank label, Brut, Brut Rose (really good) and a bubbly from Riesling in a Cremant style, which is not to be missed if you like this grape....

This Pinot Noir from some of the oldest vines in the Finger Lakes, is quite nice. '12 was a good year in this region for the red grapes, the summer had a higher number of warm days than normal. Which allowed the grapes to develop a good balance of sugars, acidity, and flavors that don't always happen in this cool climate area.

At 5 years of age this wine is in it's sweet spot, now is the time to drink it. Beautiful notes of cherry, plum, a bit of cola, perfect spicy notes from barrel aging in the nose. Slightly tart cherry flavors, plum, berries, nice medium finish, which lingers in the mouth inviting you to take another sip... and has a beautiful color.

I paired this with a chicken Cordon Blue, and oven roasted herbed potato wedges.... a nice match.

This wine isn't available anywhere other than at the winery, or at select stores in NY State. If you have any interest in discovering wines, take the time to travel out to the Finger Lakes and spend a week or so, If you're like me you'll realize we've got a special area almost in our back yard.

Cheers!

Ed

Vin du Lac of Chelan - 2013 Barrel Select Chardonnay WA

We only keep a few Chardonnay's in the cellar of our house, a couple from the Finger Lakes region and one from CA. To me, the variety is not as food friendly as Riesling, or as enjoyable sipped on by itself. But I keep trying Chards from different regions of the world, it's fun to learn about these areas.

This wine has a nice light shade of yellow, with subtle pear, apple, and spice notes in the nose. The palate reflects the nose, the pear, apple, melon, and spice flavors are balanced by just right acidity and linger nicely on the finish. It also has a slightly creamy feel in the mouth, a nicely made wine.

On the second day the flavors were nicely integrated, and very pleasant to sip on.... definite notes of pear, apple and spice in the nose.

 My wife thought she would like it with an oven roasted chicken dinner, I think it would also be good with grilled lime/garlic shrimp, or grilled lobster tail with a garlic herb butter melted over it. I'm sure there are other pairings for this as well.

Available on sale at NH Liquor outlets for $11.99 thru the end of January, 2018.

Enjoy, cheers!

Ed

Glenora Cellars Peach Spumante NV

 

Back in the early 90's I started trying red wine upon the advice of my Dr, and as I began learning about the many wine producing regions of the world, I decided I'd like to visit one of these areas.

California was too far at the time, Europe wasn't an option, but there was an area that kept coming up in all of the books I was reading that I could drive to. And the reviews of the white wines from this region were of the opinion that they were world class, so I decided to plan a visit to the upstate NY area known as The Finger Lakes.

The lakes are the result of glaciers that covered that area, and resulted in long, narrow, and very deep indentations in the earth which eventually filled with fresh water. Two of the 5 main lakes are about 35 miles long, no wider than a mile at most, and between 500 to nearly 800 ft deep. The depth allows the water to retain heat during the winter months, and helps protect the vines from freezing in the vineyards planted on the slopes along the length of the lakes. The lakes have only frozen over 3 times in the last 100 years....

I visited a number of wineries over the course of a long weekend, and had a great time. The people pouring samples in the tasting rooms were friendly, helpful, and made the learning experience a lot of fun regardless of how much or little you knew about wine. As the reputation of this area has spread, there are quite a few new wineries and even some distilleries but the experience is still the same. I would recommend you visit there sometime, we like going after Labor day as the crowds have thinned out, it's more relaxed, and the weather is still nice.

Glenora Cellars produces a number of wines, from Riesling to many of the French hybrids (popular in this region for their cold hardy abilities) and some sparkling wines, one of which is their Peach Spumante. It smells and tastes like you bit into a perfectly ripe peach, it's off dry but not too sweet, has a creamy feel in the mouth and finishes smooth with just enough acidity to keep it in balance.

It's my wife's favorite bubbly, she only breaks it out on special occaisions and shares a glass with me (for which I'm grateful) available at the winery for $15.99, probably some retail locations in NY State near Glens Falls, and they do ship to NH.

Cheers!

Ed

2015 HESS Allomi Vineyard

I have followed this single vineyard wine since being introduced to the 2009 bottling by a Total Wine employee a few years back. The store clerk had asked if I needed help finding anything, he then took a look at the contents of my cart and asked if I had tried the Allomi bottling.

When he described his impressions from the wine, I was intrigued. So after tasting the 2009, I have continued to purchase bottles from good vintages. The wine is always good upon release, and ages nicely, developing additional nuances with well integrated tannins.

The Allomi Vineyard is in Pope Valley, a remote area of Napa county, at the eastern base of Howell Mtn. The winters are very cold, (by CA standards) but summers are quite warm with a long growing season resulting in optimal ripening of the grapes.

The vineyard is now about 15 years old, I think it continues to mature and produce better fruit each year. The 2015 is definitely special, surprisingly approachable for being only 2 years old, with black cherry, plum, cocoa powder, and a bit of blackberry in the nose when first opened. It has matching flavors on the palate, nice acidity, with some spice on the finish.

The second day brings more blackberry in the nose, combined with the cherry and other black fruit notes. The wine becomes thicker, nicely mouth coating, with mixed berry, almost a blackberry pie/compote taste, with a nice lingering finish. This is a very good wine, I would pair this with an herb crusted prime rib dinner, grilled garlic/rosemary lamb chops, various grilled Angus steaks with herb butter, etc...

On sale now at NH liquor outlets for $24.99,  a markdown of $10.00 per bottle. This is a great value for a Napa wine, usually you'd pay twice that for something this good.... same price at Total Wine stores. This would be a great addition to your Christmas dinner table, or for any special occasion.

Cheers,

Ed

2015 Oak Ridge Lodi Ancient Vine Zinfandel

We first tried wines from this producer a few years ago in Montreal at the annual tasting event. They make a wide range of bottlings, Chardonnay, Merlot, Petite Syrah, Cabernet, and several bottlings of Zinfandel.  There were a few options available in the NH system a few years ago, a basic Zin for $6.99, and one called OZV for $10.99, (old Zin vines). Both of these wines are a very good value for the money.

The Ancient Vine opens with expressive notes of blackberry, black raspberry, cherry, cinnamon, a bit of tobacco leaf and some other notes I can't quite pinpoint in the nose... but it's so intriguing.

The taste is delicious! I get the black raspberry first, then cherry, black plum, blackberry, cinnamon, with a nice hint of pepper on the oh so smooth finish. Nice mouthfeel with just the right amount of acidity as it finishes... wow! I kept wanting to take another sip to experience the range of flavors. According to their website the fruit is sourced from 50 to 100 year old vines...

I tried this wine with a Canadian ground pork pie.... very nice. But any kind of bbq from the grill is going to be great with this, slow cooked ribs, chicken, burgers, take your pick...

This wine isn't available in NH, but you can find it at Total wine in Natick MA for $14.50 per bottle, $12.00 if you do the pick 6 deal. A great bargain even at the regular price.... this is real Zinfandel.
Try a bottle if you're near a Total wine store.

Cheers!

Ed

Thoughts on selecting a wine to buy....

A few weeks ago Diane asked me how I decided what wines to buy when I was browsing through the selections in a store.... I have been thinking about how to answer this question since...

When I first started drinking wine, I didn't know where to start other than what my Dr had suggested as part of a plan to lead a healthier life... a glass of red wine daily with dinner... So I went to the local NH Liquor outlet and wandered around the isles for a while looking at labels, kind of overwhelmed by all the choices.

One of the store employees stopped and asked me if he could help, so I explained how I came to be there looking at the red wines, and that I was totaly new to wine. He then asked me a few questions such as, what kinds of food I liked to eat, how much did I want to spend, did I have wine glasses at home? (What? Wine takes a special glass?)  Our talk was quite an eye opener for me... but because I knew I needed to make a change, I was all in.

So we settled on 2 selections, a Merlot from California which tends to be easy on the palate, and good with pork, beef, and chicken prepared a number of ways.  The other choice was a basic Chianti, good with red sauce pasta, grilled Italian sausages, grilled veggies, pizza, etc... I liked both of the wines, and I have been grateful for the good advice ever since.

So as I began to try different reds, and eventually whites, I wanted to know why I liked some wines and not others. So I checked the library for books on wine, did a lot of reading about wine regions of the world, and how they made the wines there. I bought some books of my own, and over time  through tasting, and writing down my thoughts in a wine log book, a memory bank of smells, tastes, and impressions gradually developed.

What's fun about tasting wine, is that everyone's perception of the same bottle of wine can be completely different.... or somewhat similar. So I would suggest that people make a list of what they like for grape varieties, and try that grape from different parts of the world. You'll know what you like and don't like... and come up with a list of memories that's yours....

As for publications or websites to possibly help you make a choice on a wine, quite a few of them use number scores for rating wines. If this works for you, and you're comfortable with it, use it. My choice is Hugh Johnsons pocket wine book, he uses a non numerical rating system. What I like is the descriptions of wines, and a bit of info about the winery. Over time his style of writing has really made sense to me and I have come to trust it. As any one person can't be everywhere in the world, he has developed a top notch network of people around the world who relay info to him.

 His book is published every year and gets a little bit thicker every year as new wine producing areas come on board, I use past years as a reference library. Each volume has a wealth of information in it, grape varieties, food pairings, vintage reports, his thoughts on when to drink vintages, a section on, if you like this grape, try this one, etc. The cost for his book is around $15.00, a bargain for all the information it contains.

Diane, I hope this answers your question regarding how I make a choice which wine to buy....

For a lot of people, they don't put this much thought into it....some pick a pretty label, some ask a clerk in the store, some rely on a friends recommendation, or a blog like mine. Everyone has a different approach to buying, I hope this helps you...

Cheers,

Ed

Antico Sigillo 2014 Primitivo di Manduria Italy

Antico Sigillo 2014  Primitivo di Manduria  Italy


I went into the W. Lebanon liqour outlet store to look for an Italian red from Sicily that my wife saw on an episode of Rachel Ray; she used the wine in the making of a red sauce for pasta. It was a wine made from Nero D'avola, and the sauce sounded amazing. I did not find this particular wine, but they have several Nero's from good producers available at reasonable prices.

In the course of checking to see if the wine was available, the employee helping me suggested I take a look at one of the new power buy wines from Italy. She mentioned that it was selling briskly, (which usually means it's good , and a good price) so I brought a few bottles home with me.

This wine comes from the Apulia region, also known as the heel of the Italian boot. Manduria is the particular growing zone within Apulia known for producing quality Primitivo.

This opens with nice notes of dark berries, a bit of raspberry, a little tobacco leaf. On the palate it reminds me an American Zin, but not as robust or tannic, more approachable and smooth. I get red fruit, red plum, raspberry, very tasty... day 2 brought a deeper nose of dark berries, and more of a mouth coating effect. It has enough acidity to balance the plush feel, with a pleasant taste of berries lingering on the finish.

I enjoyed the pairing of this with oven roasted turkey, baked potatoes and gravy. I think it would be equally at home with all manner of grilled meats, and most Italian foods.

Available at the NH Liquor outlets for $9.99, (half price) and at other stores for between $11.00 and $15.00. Get in to one of the NH stores and try a bottle of this, I think once people realize how good a value it is, it'll disappear fast.... I know I'm going to get more.

Cheers!

Ed