This is not me, but…
…based on his accent and drinking style it very well could be a close relative of Mrs. Barbarian!
Happy New Year, and be aware that my resolution for 2010 is to write at LEAST one post a week here throughout the year.
A “Super Chilean” … No Bull.
I picked up this red today at the grocery store for $10.49. The weather has been atrocious all day and Mrs. Barbarian didn’t want to venture out of the house. However I found myself short a few ingredients for the Sunday dinner I was planning in my head. Braving the elements I dashed into the store, avoiding the cold wet stuff falling from the sky. After I had grabbed the vegetables I sought, along with a few pounds of the flesh of lesser beasts, I wandered over to the wine section and spotted this Chilean. The store had hung a tag up under the bottle telling of a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, and Cabernet Franc… three of my favorite grapes (after Petite Sirah of course!) It was surrounded by a host of Chilean Cabs, all sporting distinctly un-Chilean price tags in the mid-$20—to low-$30 range so my hopes were not high. I lifted the tag to check the price, expecting twenty-something dollars but instead saw $15.00. This store offers a discount if you buy four bottles (any bottles, mix&match), so I grabbed this along with 3 others (a bottle of aussie port, a Nuevo Mundo Cab/Malbec blend, and a California wine I’ll try later this week.) This discount knocked the cost down to $10.49 to be exact, so I’m a happy barbarian!
Dinner was a pasta dish with Italian sausage, along with some baked asparagus, sauteed broccoli/kale, and garlic bread. This wine worked very well with it all… very smooth, lots of flavor, a big sort of presence without being overpowering. Not much nose, but plenty of good stuff going on once it was in the mouth. The label has a watercolor picture of a bull, but this bottle has no bull in it whatsoever. Just a very good wine at a very reasonable price. I may go back a buy a case.
“Calcu”
2006 Red Wine “Super Chilean” from the Valle de Colchagua, Chile
60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Carmenère, 15% Cabernet Franc
EXCELLENT value under $20.
Mystery Windfall
I’ll let you in on a not-so-hidden secret: While I like wine quite a bit, I don’t know much about wine. When I sit down to share what I thought about any particular wine it is usually a bit after the fact. I snap a photo of the wine, and jot some drunken notes on my not-so-smartphone. I can recall the reactions of those who are with me at the time, and can certainly remember if I liked it or not. But anything more factual is usually conjured from the vast reaches of the Internet via Google. I like to provide links should you, my dear reader, wish to go out and buy some of this stuff yourself. I never read what other reviewers have said about a wine… I honestly do not care. Besides I find all the wine-snob terminology frustrating as hell. I swear, if I ever actually hear somebody say something like “essence of blackberries and tobacco” in my presence I’m likely to bury my forks in their eye sockets (salad fork in the left eye of course!) and drink all their wine myself. I’ve been known for other barbaric, though not-so-dramatic acts… for instance taking empty wine bottles home from fancy restaurants. I do this as a reminder to myself of how good the wine was, and a way for me to catalog it later for you. Mrs. Barbarian is always shocked and embarrassed by this behavior of mine … though she hasn’t yet said “oaky” or “shoe leather” yet while at a fancy bistro with me. She thinks walking away with an empty, and then (shock! horror!) leaving it sitting at my desk for weeks on end is “tacky.” Of course my retort to her is “you picked me… what does that say about your judgement?”
Not long ago Mrs. Barbarian & I visited our favorite eatery and as my eye wandered over the wine list it fell upon something I’d never seen before. A Petite Syrah from the Pacific Northwest. I had to try it. The proprietor of this place loves to present hard to find, usually very unusual wines. Sure, he has a big list of safe choices for those lacking in courage, but there are enough whack-jobs like myself among his clientele that oddball wines and offbeat varietals are always available on the periphery of his list. I suspect that in the case of this wine, he only had a handful, if even a case. It was there one week, and gone the next. I’m glad I stumbled into enjoy it while it was available.
Despite the fact that I kept the bottle, this Petite Syrah remains a mystery.
The front label says only:
Fallöbst
Petite Syrah
Zephyr Ridge Vineyard
Alc. 14.2% by volume2006
The back label continues the enigma:
I’m Just Sayin’
I have eaten
the grapes
that were on
the vine
………………..
and which
you were probably
saving
for harvest
……………….
Forgive me
they were so delicious
so sweet
and so ovalPRODUCED AND BOTTLED BY FALLOBST
MILTON FREEWATER, OREGON
All that Google can tell me is that Fallöbst winery does exist in Milton-Freewater (a town not far from Walla Walla, Washington), has paid taxes, and has distributed this wine to a few places in the Pacific Northwest (how it got here to me is yet another mystery!) Zephyr Ridge Vineyard appears to be in Horse Heaven Hills, which is in Washington state in the Columbia River Valley. Beyond that this wine retains all manner of mystery.
I can not recall what I paid for it, likely around $35, which means if it was on a store shelf it would cost around $15—$19. That my friend would be a bargain because this is a wonderful Petite Syrah. Big, bold, smooth, and able to stain your teeth beyond any hope of a career on television.
Sibling Rivalry?
After I fell in love with a cheap Chilean Malbec by the name of “Secreto” I kept my eye out for other wines from the same maker. By random chance while in a grocery store in a town I rarely visit I spotted a display carrying the name of the “parent” of the Secreto brand, Viu Manent. Without hesitation I grabbed two bottles of the Malbec. They went into my car’s trunk for the ride home and spent a month or so lounging in the cellar prior to trying one out.
Perhaps this is a dinner table conversation best left to Carl Jung and Robert Pirsig, but…
Is it because the Secreto is so inexpensive, yet pretty good, that I liked it more than this Viu Manent, which was also pretty good, but twice the price of the Secreto?
Then again, this was not a side-by-side comparison. These two tastings happened months apart. Maybe it was the foods paired? Perhaps it was high expectations? Maybe the 2008 vintage doesn’t stand up to 2007? Who knows. While this wine is certainly enjoyable, and a good value at around $18 a bottle, it’s little brother was a delight for under $10.
I think I have one bottle of each still stashed away downstairs so perhaps a head-to-head rematch is in order? Stay tuned.
Viu Manent
Estate collection
2008 Malbec
Colchagua Valley
Chile
Life in the Wine-ness Protection Program
Some business travel recently had me in, of all places, Elkhart, Indiana for one night. It was a dark and stormy night to be exact. One of those midwestern dark-sky, thunder and lightning, pressure so low you feel underwater even though it isn’t even raining yet sort of evenings to be even more exact. I figured a tornado was going to drop onto us and send the entire hotel off to crush a witch along with the entire village of Munchkins at any moment.
So we went out to dinner.
Why be party to small-scale (pardon the pun) genocide when we could be quaffing cheap red wine? My traveling companion picked an Italian place from the phone book and we piloted ourselves through the whirlwinds to their parking lot. How did this place get here?All I could figure was that this place must be owned by somebody in the Witness Protection Program. The food was excellent. Just basic hearty Italian fare that exists somewhere between what I’ve come to expect from either over-done, over-thought, over-wrought Italian Cuisine found on the west coast, and the exceedingly bland spaghetti & Ragu one finds in the midwest. This wonderful place had exactly what you imagine when you think of Italian food. Subtle flavors, and simple presentation all backed up by excellent service. Our breadsticks and marinara sauce were amazing, especially the sauce. Light, tangy, with exactly the right amounts of herbs and spices. Salads were simple, and really the sole low point of the experience as the dressing was served in a little plastic cup… I much prefer my salads pre-tossed and people with diet hangups who want to have complete control over their fat and caloric intake shouldn’t be going out to dinner in the first place! For the entree I picked a calzone. I chose the smallest (9″) one as we were leaving early in the morning and I knew there would be no way I could keep the leftovers for tomorrow. My companion chose the veal, despite the lack of a comedian nearby suggesting he try it. (hey, don’t look at me!)
As we awaited our entrees a bottle of Chianti arrived. Cecchi Chianti Classico 2005. Ah Chianti, that super-cheap Tuscan. In this case it fit the bill. Not so amazing as to outshine the basic fare, but certainly not strictly a cheap buzz. Basic, reasonable quality red wine. You should be able to find it on a shelf for under $15.
Our entrees arrived and my calzone was bigger than my head. I asked the waitress for a ruler, claiming that there was no way this pie started out anywhere near nine inches across. She just laughed and walked away. It was excellent and I ate it all.
Much Merriment
A nice little birthday dinner for the Mrs. Barbarian of the household and once again we visited her favorite haunt. She loves to explore the menu, trying new things. Me? I order the same thing every time: New York Strip, medium-rare. The chef here has that steak down pat, so why tempt fate? I limit my explorations to the wine list. The owner of this little small-town bistro always has great stuff on the list and to be honest, like the chef’s steak the wine list has never let me down. On this trip I noted another wine from that Walla Walla place up in Washington, specifically Basel Cellars. We’d really enjoyed their Claret which was a cheap thrill indeed. This other selection was called “Merriment“. What better choice for a celebration? While it was well over 2X the price of the Claret we’d tried before, it still wasn’t outrageously priced as so many reds can be.
Merriment is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc. It is also awesome. Mrs. Barbarian loved it. I loved it. Wonderful stuff.
Just Peachy
The Vinagoth loves him some Petite Sirah. While all manner of grapes grace these pages, when it comes to sitting down for some serious swilling your author oftentimes chooses the delectable delights of Dr. Durif. A considerable amount of the best Petite Sirah I’ve consumed originates from the Paso Robles area of California and some recent travels found me in that very town. I was traveling by car and Paso Robles fell at the half-way point of our two-day drive. While the town itself is not much to behold (think “Sunburns and Tractor Pulls!”) the vineyards of the region produce some damn good fruit.
My traveling companion and I went out for dinner upon our arrival. He chose the place, I chose the wine. He chose a local pizza joint, then informed me that he doesn’t drink. The things I have to endure! The pizza place was nice, with a big brick oven and a huge choice of wines, all local. We ordered a medium pepperoni, and I requested jalapenos and garlic on my half. (what can I say… I’m a barbarian!) Afterwards I walked over to the huge array of local wines and spotted this Petite Sirah, the only Durif in the whole display! I ordered a bottle, and the nice lady behind the counter handed me an open bottle and a glass.
Peachy Canyon 2005 Petite Sirah, Paso Robles, CA ~$18/bottle
Love this wine. Big. Tasty. Just like a Petite Sirah should be. It even stood up to the killer death barbaric pizza… well almost. You see they mangled the order and forgot the garlic, so we were given another pizza for free. The first had the jalapenos, but not the garlic. The peppers themselves were killer-hot. Like wines, you never know what you’ll get with a Jalapeno. Sometimes they are sweet and mild, sometimes, once bitten they will burn through matter like the blood of a H. R Giger Alien, seeking the gravitational core of the planet. The Jalapenos of Paso Robles fall into the latter end of the Scoville Scale. I had to peel off quite a few of the damn things to be able to taste anything afterwards. Very few wines, especially reds, can stand up to a Capsaicin clobbering such as the one I was enduring. The Peachy held up “ok” with plenty of ice water “palate cleansers” thrown over the tongue to douse the wildfire burning there.
I re-corked the bottle and brought it back to the hotel, where I assumed I’d have another glass before turning in. The stuff was so good I polished the whole bottle off that night…
A Washington Pinot from California?
Americans have occasionally been shown to be … shall we say “geographically challenged“. Your humble Barbarian however, always knows where he is, and normally can find just about any place on a map. Navigation to me is an enjoyable past time. I can find cardinal directions quite easily and though my travels, when judged on a global scale, have been rather modest (the number of countries I’ve visited number less than a dozen) I can still tour the world through a bottle of cheap red wine… and often do.
I saw this Pinot Noir on a grocery shelf, with a price of about $10. It proclaimed its origin from the Columbia Valley, which I know straddles both Oregon and Washington. The Washington side of the river, being on the north, which means facing south, contains the vast majority of the grape growing areas. I noted also that the winery is called “Castle Rock”. Now this is a rather common place name, especially in the western US, where I bet every state contains a town or a feature named “Castle Rock”. I know for a fact there is a town with this name in western Washington, somewhere north of Portland, where the Willamette River (whose valley produces so much excellent Pinot Noir!) flows into the Columbia. I seem to recall a place long the Colombia River as well named Castle Rock… perhaps it is a geological feature. So the grapes are from this valley in Washington state… where is the winery?
The label says Sonoma, California, and their website says Palos Verdes Estates, California.
That seems odd to me as I doubt the grapes made either a 600 or a 1200 mile journey from vineyard to winery. If so those grapes are better travelled than most of the Americans they passed on Interstate 5!
However the geographical conjecture is meaningless as the wine itself is quite good. Mrs. Barbarian and I enjoyed it with a grilled chicken caesar salad the other night. I was supposed to do the grilling. I imagined slicing the chicken breasts like filets and pounding them flat with some garlic and herbs before tossing them on the grill. But I became distracted with some chore out in the yard … and the Mrs. being hungry and an impatient type of person put one of those cast iron griddle things on the stove and started cooking. When I finally finished my manly wrench spinning, or grass chopping, or whatever it was I was doing I wandered into a smoky kitchen to find lumpy chicken and a coughing wife. I casually mentioned my idea of a filet cut, and was met by a verbal assault. If she’d been armed with a filet knife I imagine I’d be on the menu.
I beat a hasty retreat to the wine cellar and as it was the first day of summer and this was a light meal, I grabbed a Pinot. This Pinot: Castle Rock 2006 Columbia Valley Pinot Noir. Mrs. Barbarian put the food on the table and I opened the wine. Within minutes her mood improved. It could have been hunger being sated, or it could have been the wine. I’d like to think it was the latter, as it was light, refreshing, and quite tasty. Not a sophisticated Pinot, but certainly significantly better than your average low priced one. In fact I’ve paid twice as much for bad Pinots! So for the money, this is likely one of the better ones I’ve ever had. Kept me from being served as dessert.
Oops, what a surprise!
I’m not a “shopper”. When I have something to buy at a retail store I go in and out like an elite commando unit. Surgical strike. In. Grab the item. Go. Go. Go! It usually takes me longer to take a shower than it does to buy an item in a store.
I was at Target the other day, to pick up a two household items I was tasked to get by Mrs. Barbarian.. As I was making my way to the checkout at high speed a word in my peripheral vision caused me to stop, pause, and turn my head. What caught my eye was the word “Carmenère”. Visual pattern-matching has always been one of my minor superpowers since I was just a wee Barbarian. Remember those find the words in a square of seemingly random letters puzzles from childhood? Those things are trivial for me. The words themselves, as strong signal just seem to float above the background noise of letters for my brain. Since Petite Sirah and Carmenère seem to be my favorite varietals these days I seem to be able to “see” them even when I’m not looking for them. Even when I am beating a hasty exit from an otherwise uncomfortable situation/
I hardly step into Target more than once a year. I didn’t even know that they sold wine. But there is was, grabbing my attention. From six feet away using only 18 point type. My brain scares me sometimes.
So what is this Carmenère that stopped me in my tracks at Target? It is called “(Oops) 2007 Voluptuous Beauty”. It is a Cabernet Franc & Carmenère blend (84%/16%) from Chile’s Valle Central. The price tag said $9.34, so I figured I might as well buy it. I’ll drink anything…. once.
I brought the wine home and opened it to accompany a nice outdoor dinner of pasta and sauteed broccoli out on the deck. It was a hot evening, but breezy, so quite nice. The pasta was a four cheese ravioli in a pesto sauce. The wine surprised both Mrs. Barbarian and me. I was honestly prepared for the wine to be horrible. After all I bought it from Target! Instead we found it quite drinkable, though not a mind-blower. Just a very good, reasonably cheap red wine.
The Carmenère at only 16% of the blend was barely noticeable, though obviously there. It tasted like a rather earthy Cab Franc, just like I’d expect. Very dark in color. Certainly worth the sub-$10 price. I’ll have a look and see if I can find more examples of their product.
The label is a tad cutesy… OK it is way too cutesy… so cutesy I almost didn’t buy it. But it does tell the tale of the origins of Carmenère and how it was rediscovered in Chile after having thought to be lost. If you can overlook the cutesy marketing this is an OK wine.
A Tale of Two Carmenères: Beresan & Root:1
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Thank you Mr. Dickens for Comparison Only is what we’re here to perform.
My parents were visiting recently, ironically stopping by before departing on a wine tour of the west coast, including Napa & Sonoma, Oregon and Washington. I often say “I aspire to my father’s lifestyle” and I mean it. He is enjoying the rewards due to him from a lifetime of labor by pursuing that which provides him great pleasure. One of these pleasures is the fruit of the vine. All of the finest wines I have ever tasted have been either at my father’s table, or at a table hosted by my father. It is through him that I have come to this passion for the vintners craft.
We made a reservation at our favorite local bistro for a dinner. While we both perused the wine list I spotted a Carmenère, from of all places, Walla Walla, Washington. My father introduced me to Carmenère about a decade ago and told me its story. I know that he visited Chile a few years ago and toured the varietals’ adopted homeland, so I suggested we try it. Pulling paternal rank knowing that he’d be footing the bill when the check arrived, he demurred, saying it was a bit too expensive (at around $42. You see I come by many traits honestly!) Not wanting to let the opportunity pass, I said “I’ll buy it.” He agreed and I ordered up a bottle. The proprietor let me know that it was an excellent choice and that it was one of his last bottles.
How Carmenère came to be planted in Walla Walla, WA is a story I’d love to hear some day, until then I’ll have to let the wine speak for itself. This Beresan Carmenère is a wonderful example of the varietal, which any Chilean winery would be proud to produce. It drinks as I’d expect a good Carmenère to drink; deep, rich, complex, and flavorful. While not as massively dense as some I’ve tried, it certainly isn’t what you would call light. Between the four of us the bottle went pretty fast and my father ordered a bottle of the other Carmenère found on the wine list; a Chilean called Root:1 (at around $32 at the restaurant, likely much less at retail.) I’ve had a Root:1 Cabernet Sauvignon before, but never their Carmenère until now.
It has all the same characteristics of the Beresan Carmenère, but with a slightly lighter flavor with quite a bit more fruit. Perhaps the fact that it is only 75% Carmenère, with the rest being Cabernet sauvignon and Syrah is what gives it the fruit-boost and lighter profile. Honestly they were both excellent, with the Beresan being my favorite of the two.
As Dickens said it is indeed the best and worst of times. A time when a modestly wealthy gentleman much watch his expenses due to the foolishness of the great titans of Finance who brought upon us this winter of despair. But it is also our Spring of hope, with everything before us, such that amazing fruits of far off continents are available to us for a few dollars here and there. Savor the fruits where you find them.
It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.
Links:
Beresan Wines.
Root:1 Wines.
