Category: Wine
Nalle Winery Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2008
I’ve written before about Nalle Winery, how much I like all of their wines and particularly their Zinfandel. As I’ve said in the past, Nalle’s Zin was one of the first wines that I fell in love with. It inspired a real appreciation for Zinfandel, and ever since I first tasted it, it has remained right up there among my favorite wines.
Sadly, Nalle’s wines are not available here where we live, and so it is rare that we have the opportunity to taste any of them. So when we were in San Francisco last weekend and saw a bottle of the 2008 Zin in a wine shop, we leaped at the chance to try it.
The 2008 version is a field blend bringing together grapes from 3 separate vineyards. The blend includes 86% Zinfandel, 8% Petite Sirah, 3% Carignane, 2% Mourvedre, and 1% Alicante Bouchet. All of the vineyards are situated in the Dry Creek Valley appellation, one of the most ideal spots for growing Zinfandel in California. The Zins from here consistently and beautifully express a unique terroir.
The wine was bottled in August 2009, and rolls in at a relatively restrained 13.9%.
Tasting Notes
In the glass the wine is a deep, opaque, purple velvet. The nose is rich with opulent fruit – think blackberries, raspberries, and currants – alongside a whisp of tobacco, fennel, and menthol. The palate has big flavors of creamy oak, dark red fruit, black pepper, and black licorice, riding atop a silky smooth-textured body. The finish is surprisingly bright, with flavors of strawberries complementing red licorice and vanilla.
This is a wonderful, classic Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel, loaded with dark, robust brambly fruit and a supple texture. The oaky notes are more pronounced than in a bottle of the 2003 that we tasted not too long ago, with a thread of oaky vanilla underscoring the other flavors in the palate. All in all, outstanding.
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Chateau Theulet Monbazillac 2000
There are few wines that really capture my imagination and abiding interest. The short list includes Piedmont’s Barolos, Sonoma’s Zinfandels, Oregon’s Pinot Noirs, the whites of France’s Jura region, and the ethereal sweet wines of Sauternes. The beauty of this short list, is that I’ve really got my bases covered – each of the wines capably serves as a starting off point for exploring wines from areas that are new to me (or structuring the wine list for a dinner, not that I’ve ever done that, but can you imagine a dinner featuring each of these wines? wow!).
This wine is a case in point, as my enjoyment of Sauternes wines led me to go out on a limb and try a wine from the Monbazillac region of France. This is a region whose wines are somewhat off the map, and it is unusual to find them in shops. In my case, I happened across this bottle in one of those rare shops where you know that you can trust in the quality throughout their selections, and so I took a shot on this wine. I’m lucky I did too, this wine turned out to be a real hidden gem.
Monbazillac is a small AOC located in in south-west France. The wines produced under this AOC are somewhat similar to Sauternes, in that only sweet wines made from grapes affected by Botrytis cinerea, “noble rot”, can be used. Even similar grape varieties are used, with Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc (the two white grapes allowed in Sauternes) accompanied by Muscadelle. In addition, mechanical harvesting is not allowed, and many vineyards harvest the grapes over the course of several “tries”, or passes through the vineyard. Owing to the use of Muscadelle, the wines’ aroma and flavor profile are slightly different from Sauternes, but on the whole the wines bear a distinct similarity to those of Sauternes.
Given my love of sweet wines, I was admittedly pretty excited to try this bottle. It is from Chateau Theulet, a small producer who holds ~34 hectares of vineyards. The chateau has been in the hands of the Alard family since 1848, and today is managed by the seventh generation, Antoine Alard. Their Monbazillac wine is made using 75% Semillon and 25% Muscadelle. This particular bottle is from the 2000 vintage.
Tasting Notes
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De Forville Nebbiolo d’Alba San Rocco 2007
There are some wines that you know are going to be good, even before you’ve had the chance to try them. Whether because of the producer or the importer, or perhaps the recommendation of a trusted source, these wines bring a wonderful degree of promise and sense of expectation to the glass. This was one of those, a wine that I had often imagined tasting and looked forward to with much anticipation.
The reason was two-fold. Firstly, De Forville is a Piedmont estate (and I love the wines of Piedmont) that I’ve read very good things about, especially the wines that they make from the famed Nebbiolo grape. Secondly, their wines are brought into the U.S. by Neal Rosenthal, my favorite wine importer by a long shot. The combination of a Piedmont wine, the Nebbiolo grape, and Neal Rosenthal as the importer was very exciting.
The De Forville family founded the estate in 1860 after first settling in Piedmont after leaving Belgium in 1848. Since then, the estate has been passed down from generation to generation and is managed today by Valter and Paolo Anfosso. The estate’s total holdings measure 10 hectares in the villages of Barbaresco (3.5 hectares) and Castagnole Lanze (6.5 hectares). The Nebbiolo grapes for this wine come entirely from the San Rocco Seno d’Elvio vineyard in the Barbaresco area.
In San Rocco, Nebbiolo d’Alba vineyards account for only 4.66% of the total plantings, with the majority going to Dolcetto d’Alba, Moscato d’Asti, and Barbera d’Alba. It’s one of the lesser areas of vineyards of those that contribute grapes to the great DOCG wine Barbaresco. Nonetheless, while Nebbiolo may not account for a large percentage of the grapes grown here, this noble variety has a long history of being planted here, and the De Forville estate uses Nebbiolo from throughout their holdings to produce a very well-regarded Barbaresco.
De Forville produces their wines pretty traditionally. After crushing, the grapes are left to ferment on their skins for as long as 4 weeks in the case of their Barbaresco. In late November, the wines are racked into large oak barrels (called “botti”) where malolactic fermentation occurs. Some of the Barbaresco and a Barbera that they produce are additionally aged in small oak barrels.
Tasting Notes
The nose is a complex blend of cranberries and candied cherries with the medicinal element of a ludens cough drop, underscored by a hint of a vanilla, and a foundation of warm earthiness. The palate is medium textured with huge, gripping tannins that threaten to grab hold of your taste buds and not let go. There are flavors of bing cherries, black licorice, tart raspberries, cocoa powder, and chili powder.With softer tannins the flavors would be more melded and pronounced, but at this stage they end up being just slightly muted. The finish is full of fresh, red fruits, with bowls of cranberries, raspberries, and strawberries, with subtle hints of mint and chipotle.
An absolutely intriguing wine, that I’m very lucky to have had the chance to try. I think it’s great now, and will be really stunning in a few years time.
It’s rare that I taste a wine and feel that it was opened before its prime. I’m really not that sophisticated when it comes to aging wines and having the patience to wait until they hit their prime. But in tasting this wine, and feeling the grip of those tannins and the influence that had on the presentation of the wine’s flavors, it was quite clear that in a few years, once those tannins mellowed and smoothed with time, the wine would be an absolute beauty to behold. So go! Buy a few bottles of this, stash them in your cellar, perhaps under the floorboards so that you forget they’re there.
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Alexander Valley Vineyards “Sin Zin” Alexander Valley Zinfandel 2007
The strength of my interests tends to take place in waves. One month I’ll be preoccupied with whiskey, tasting several and reading all I can about it, the next week my attention will turn to beer, perhaps blisteringly hoppy IPAs, then on to coffee, followed by scotch, followed by…you get the picture. Because my interest in these various delectable beverages is driven as much by intellectual curiosity as sheer enjoyment, what I end up tasting is very often driven by what I’m enjoying reading about at any given moment.
Recently, the pendulum has swung towards wine, and zinfandel in particular. This is due in part to my love of the zinfandel from Nalle Winery (whose mailer I received recently, and I have to say that it’s very well done and a great enticement to purchase some of their wines! Darn shipping laws!). Recently, I learned that this year they’ve bottled separately the wine made from grapes grown in the field directly in front of the winery. I remember visiting there a few years ago and walking amidst that small plot of vines. How cool to know that they’ve bottled that wine separately. Now if only their wine came out thisaways!
Anyhow, I’ve always loved Nalle’s zinfandel, and as a result I often get drawn back to this grape and the unique and exciting wines that certain producers make from it. During these digressions down the zinfandel path, I end up leafing through Stephen Brook’s California Wine for the umpteenth time, reading the section on zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley, Nalle, Ridge, Ravenswood, etc. I dig up interviews with Doug Nalle, Paul Draper, and others. And I stroll through the aisles of wine shops, admiring bottles of zin from Dry Creek Valley, Alexander Valley, Paso Robles, and other appellations on occasion (admittedly, those are my go-to appellations for zinfandel).
Alexander Valley Vineyards‘ Sin Zin has been one of my favorite zinfandels for many years now, and so when we ran across several bottles of the 2007 vintage at a bargain price, I didn’t hesitate to stock up. Sin Zin is made from grapes grown in the Alexander Valley appellation, adjacent to the Dry Creek Valley and Russian River Valley appellations. It’s one of three uniquely named zinfandels from AVV, alongside Redemption Zin (Dry Creek Valley appellation) and Temptation Zin (Sonoma County appellation). Ever since I first came across Sin Zin, nearly 15 years ago, the label has been the same. Black with red lettering and a drawing of someone imbibing languorously from a wine-filled horn.
As for particulars about the wine, there’s not a lot of information to go on. The wine spends 10 months in American oak barrels, 25% of them new, before being bottled. The 2007 vintage arrives at 14.4%, a not uncommon level of alcohol for California zinfandels.
Tasting Notes
In the glass, the wine is a deep, plush purple red with ruby highlights. The nose has loads of dark red fruits, raspberries, black cherries, and currants, along with warming notes of vanilla, oak, and cedar. The palate is densely textured, with soft, plush tannins and flavors of black cherries, raspberries, currants, oak, soft, vanilla and a whiff of smoky wood presence lurking in the background. The finish continues the theme of deep, dark red fruits with black raspberry sweetness lingering in a medium-length finish.
This is a wonderful zinfandel that captures much of what makes zin such a fun and fascinating wine. It’s rich with dark brambly fruits, has a wonderful texture, and just enough added vanilla and spice from the oak aging. And at this price point (~$20-$25) this is, in my mind, one of the best zinfandels out there.
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Rare Wine Co. Boston Bual Madeira
When Eric Asimov wrote an article about Madeira several months ago, two forces combined. On the one hand, my curiosity was piqued by his description of this style of wine, once all the rage and now soundly out of fashion. On the other, the fact that dessert wines are one of my favorite styles, one I’m always excited to venture further into.
And so, not too long after his article, I found myself face-to-face with a bottle of one of the Madeiras that he had discussed, the Boston Bual Special Reserve from The Rare Wine Company. I was the lucky recipient of a bottle as a gift, and we wasted little time diving into its contents to see what all the fuss was about.
The Rare Wine Company was founded in 1989 by Mannie Berk, and has since risen in stature to become a highly respected wine importer. Their reputation regarding Madeira is unparalleled, as demonstrated by a recent tasting that they held of several very old Madeiras. Today, their list of old madeiras is quite stunning, and surely contains many bottles available nowhere else.
The Historic Series is their effort to recreate styles of Madeira that were common at the height of Madeira’s popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries. The series consists of three bottlings: Boston Bual, Charleston Sercial, and New York Malmsey. There is also a 4th, but very rare, bottling named Imperial New York Malmsey. The styles are named after the primary grape making up the wine and the geographic region where the given style of wine was most popular.
Of the three bottlings, the Boston Bual lies squarely in the middle. The Charleston Sercial is a brighter wine with lots of citrus, whereas the Malmsey is allegedly sweeter and more viscous. The Boston Bual embodies a compromise between these two poles, with both citrus and nutty sweetness playing prominent roles.
The Rare Wine Company works with Vinhos Barbeito of Madeira to source and blend the wines in the series. While the Madeira industry as a whole has experienced significant decline during the last century, Vinhos Barbeito was founded in 1946 and has accumulated a remarkable stock of Madeira since then. The wines going into the Historic Series bottlings all range up to 30 years of age, demonstrating the remarkable longevity of Madeira.
Tasting Notes
The Boston Bual pours crimson brown with rich highlights, and heavy legs on the side of the glass. The nose has beguiling complexity, with notes of caramelized walnuts, sweet aged balsamic vinegar, raisins, almonds, and smoky molasses. The wine’s texture is mouth-coatingly viscous and heavily textured, with soft, warm flavors of walnut skins, molasses, brown sugar, and citrus. There’s an acidic core that wakes up the wine’s flavors, and highlights the note of complexity thrown in by the rancio character that grows as the wine warms in the glass. All in all, the palate is richly sweet without being cloying. The finish has well-blended notes of molasses, raisins, walnuts, and lemons.
The verdict? This is a rich, warming, complex dessert wine that should be in every wine-lover’s cupboard. The beauty of this wine is that not only does it taste delicious, but it stays strong for many months after opening the bottle. In fact, we’ve had one bottle open for nearly six months, and it’s practically as good as the day that we opened it.