An excellent introduction to New Zealand Pinot Noir.

October 20th, 2008 by Vinagoth | Posted in Cheap and Red, New Zealand, Pinot Noir | 1 Comment »

Repeating myself from an earlier post:
“While dining at our favorite local bistro, I saw a Pinot on the wine list from New Zealand. Being a fearless barbarian I gave it a go. It was wonderful. Light, fruity, very different in character to a French, Oregon, or California Pinot Noir. It was so good I ordered a case.”

This is the wine in question: Momo.

I strongly recommend giving this wine a try. Momo 2004 Marlborough Pinot Noir www.seresin.co.nz The price varies from $12.00 to $19.99, depending upon vintage. We’ve been drinking it since 2002 or so, with vintages going back to around 2000. It has been consistently good, and a great value.

I still buy a bottle or two whenever I see it on the shelf at my local wine merchant or grocer. Can’t lose with this choice.

It is a Pazzo Party!

October 20th, 2008 by Vinagoth | Posted in California, Napa, Odds, Ends & Blends, On Somebody Else's Tab | 2 Comments »

I recently celebrated a birthday. Mrs. Barbarian arranged a dinner at a local steak place, a chain who sends you a coupon for a free dinner on your birthday. (Have I ever mentioned how frugal Mrs. Barbarian is?) I choose a filet, which they smother in bleu cheese and garlic, along with a twice-baked potato. Mrs. Barbarian selects a New York Strip. Looking for something powerful on the meager wine list I select this Napa blend called “Pazzo.”

It not only stands up to the big food, it is truly wonderful. It is a bit pricey, but as it is from Napa, perhaps it is a bargain at around $30 retail.

A new low in Merlot. Low price that is.

October 20th, 2008 by Vinagoth | Posted in California, Cheap and Red, Merlot | 1 Comment »

This weekend I had a manly household task to attend to, and declare to Mrs. Barbarian that I have to go to the hardware store to acquire some manly hardware-like items to accomplish my manly task. She, being the most frugal woman on planet Earth, reply that we’ll go in together to save gas, as she has to run to the grocery store for a few things. The two stores are about 6 blocks apart, so she drops me off and I tell her I will walk to the grocery store and meet her when I am done. Being manly, my foray into the hardware store is brief: Walk in, grab what I need, pay, leave. So simple. I amble down to the other end of town to the grocer and note her car still in the lot, so I walk inside. My path to find her has me going past an aisle-end sale rack with a bottle of Merlot there tagged at $3.50. My head snaps. THREE DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS? OK, I HAVE to try this. I grab it in my hand just as Mrs. Barbarian rounds the corner pushing a shopping cart. She rolls her eyes as she sees me, bottle in hand. “I thought you were shopping for hardware?” “Already done. Look here a Merlot for $3.50!” I replies. “I bet it’s awful.” She says. “Yeah, but it is ONLY THREE FIFTY!’ I exclaim.

Fearlessly I place the bottle in the cart. She just rolls her eyes some more and continues shopping.

As dinner is being prepared I open the el cheapo Merlot, pour a small taste, and sniff-n-sip…

Not bad.

Mind you, not great. But certainly a great buy at under four bucks! I offer the glass to Mrs. Barbarian to try it. Her face has that look of someone about to be knowingly smacked in the head as she raises the glass. Instead of the 2×4 she was braced for, the flavor hits her like a soft breeze. “This is okay.” she says.

If this is called Merlot I imagine that it has the minimal amount of Merlot grapes allowed. The bottle declares no vintage, and no appellation other than ‘California.’ My guess is this really should have been called a “red wine” … but I’m no expert here. Very light, but nice fruity flavor. While it isn’t amazing (other than amazingly cheap) it is quite drinkable. I’m certain that this is the least expensive wine I have reviewed to date, and unlike a few others costing much more, we actually drank it all.

Not bad.

Don’t Buy This Wine… unless you have a bird to cook.

October 13th, 2008 by Vinagoth | Posted in Cheap and Red, New Zealand, Pinot Noir, The Spit Bucket | No Comments »

While dining at our favorite local bistro, I saw a Pinot on the wine list from New Zealand. Being a fearless barbarian I gave it a go. It was wonderful. Light, fruity, very different in character to a French, Oregon, or California Pinot Noir. It was so good I ordered a case.

This wine however, proved to me that not all New Zealand Pinot Noirs are created equal. My notes, stabbed into my Blackberry say: “Kiwi red pinot noir 2006 Nelson NZ $13.99 awful.”

Those words just don’t do it justice. This stuff tastes like a brown-eyed mullet. It is as if the Grape Cocky flogged some from a kiore in the tip and crushed it with his ute and tossed it in the bottle. Rough as guts mate. It is puckeroo. You’ll chunder.

This stuff is BAD. I can’t even blame it on the cork! (It features a screw top.)

If it were under ten bucks I’d probably poured it down the sink. But since it was Pinot, and a penny shy of $14, I saved it and last weekend used it to make Coq au Vin. It was certainly up to that task. So if you want to blow fourteen bucks on a cheap bird, by all means buy this wine. Otherwise, avoid it like the plague.

The Devil Made Me Drink It!

October 6th, 2008 by Vinagoth | Posted in Carmenère, Cheap and Red, Chile | No Comments »

This wine actually saved us from a disaster. I had opened another bottle which Mrs. Barbarian tasted as I was cooking and pronounced it awful. I took a sip and confirmed (review coming soon!) so I reached into the wine cabinet in the dining room and pulled this bottle out. Indeed the Devil was our saviour that evening!

Casillero del Diablo Carmenère 2007 Chile Concha y Toro.

Along with saving our meal, it was a wonderful accompaniment to the chicken prepared for dinner. Relatively light for a Carmenère, it was still quite tasty. I do not recall the price paid for this bottle but it was probably about $12. Can’t beat that.

Oh Tawny, I barely knew you!

October 6th, 2008 by Vinagoth | Posted in Australia, Cheap and Red, Port | No Comments »

I would love to be able to provide you oh reader with a review of this wine. It is a Tawny port-style wine from Australia named Hardy’s “Whiskers Blake” Classic Tawny which I bought for a mere $12.99.

However Mrs. Barbarian discovered it while I was away for a week and drank the entire thing! I had photographed it prior to opening so at least I know it existed.

She said it was great.

Walla Walla Wine Wine

October 6th, 2008 by Vinagoth | Posted in Cheap and Red, Malbec, Walla Walla, Washington State | No Comments »

Through an unusual set of circumstances completely unrelated to anything I do here online I found myself in Walla Walla, Washington recently. This is far from my home and a place I had never been before. What an amazing place. I imagine this is what Napa was like in the 60s and 70s… an agricultural place but being transformed by the wine industry. Unlike Napa however it is literally in the middle of nowhere. This valley was the center of trade and culture in the early 1800s, being a vital stop on the Oregon Trail, but today it is near nothing in particular.

I know somebody who grew up here and asked him via an email where I should eat, and he provided for me the name of a small neighborhood bistro… the sort of place that only locals would know. The menu was appealing and the wine list, as you would imagine, excellent and stuffed with mostly local favorites.

I’ve had a few of the valley’s rock star wines over the years, but this time I figured I’d drift off that beaten path and try something completely off the wall… I asked our waitress to suggest something in that vein and this is what she brought: Dusted Valley 2006 Malbec. I’ve never seen too many Malbec’s that didn’t come from South America for one thing. For another… this wine was wonderful. Reasonably priced, full-bodied, and quite tasty. Both me and my traveling companion really enjoyed it. It is a shame that I was merely passing through (and actually had not even planned on being here, as literally an accident brought me to Walla Walla!) I plan to come back and prowl the valley’s tasting rooms at some point.

Dusted Valley

Lopez Panach Tempranillo 2006

October 6th, 2008 by Vinagoth | Posted in Cheap and Red, Spain, Tempranillo | No Comments »

An amazing wine at an amazing price. I found this little treasure at my local wine merchant while browsing the “Spain” section. It is a Lopez Panach Tempranillo, 2006 vintage. I like Spanish wines in general and could not pass one up when priced under $10. This one cost me $8.99.

I opened it up while making a dinner one night (the cook has to have a few tastes before the meal gets served you know!) and like most old world wines it was pretty tight right out of the bottle. Mrs. Barbarian winced at the first taste and declared that she did not like it. “Give it time” I aid as I went on to my cooking tasks, which involved the application of fire to some slabs of red meat.

Sure enough, by the time I had cooked the meat and sauteed the veggies it had opened up nicely. She drank more of it than I did!

Apologies for the driveway background in the shot. Mrs. Barbarian put the bottle in the recycling before I was able to get a photo. I noted the bottle at the curb side on my way to work and shot it before it vanished.

I may return for a case of this, as the price is almost too good to be true!

Torbreck “Woodcutter’s Shiraz”

August 18th, 2008 by Vinagoth | Posted in Australia, Syrah | No Comments »

Torbreck Barossa Valley 2005 Woodcutter’s Shiraz $20.99

For a guy who flogs Petite Sirah damn near every week, I rarely consume the similarly named, but completely unrelated Syrah/Shiraz varietal. It isn’t that I don’t like it… I do. In fact there are very few red wines I don’t like. Mrs. barbarian likes Syrah, so I bring some home now and then. I have no idea what caught my eye about this wine in the store. It cost me about a buck more than I’m usually willing to pay. I didn’t take any notes when I bought it… perhaps I grabbed the wrong thing off the shelf. Not unheard of… trust me. I normally have excellent eye/hand coordination but my eye goes on a total walkabout when in the wine section… the hands are on their own.

I cooked up a “mixed grill” on the BBQ, a little chicken, a little steak… you know, the flesh of lesser beasts, while the wife killed some vegetable matter for the table. Since I bought this for the better half of the Barbarian household I honestly expected high praise from her end of the table. I think it has been too long for her under the tyranny of my wandering palette that she’s forgotten what she liked about syrah. She liked it, but didn’t think it was amazing. I on the other hand thought it was fine. Might stand a few more months in the cellar but a pretty damn good shiraz as is.

2005 Spellbound Petite Sirah

August 18th, 2008 by Vinagoth | Posted in California, Cheap and Red, Petite Sirah | No Comments »

Last night we had a thunderstorm, followed by a huge blood red full moon rising over the hills to the east. Mrs. Barbarian was cooking up some amazing stuffed flank steak things she found somewhere, so I figured nothing short of a big Petite Sirah bomb blast would do. I emerged from the cellar with this one, a Lodi, CA named “Spelbound.” It has a waxing half-moon on the label, so not quite in phase, but what the hell. This is from the 2005 vintage, and cost me a mere $12.99.

It stood up very well to the very rich Florentine stuffing in the meat, but it lacked the gravity to match up with the full moon and thunderous overture provided by mother nature. I was hoping for something bigger… you know that blow-your-mind and stain-your-teeth Petite Sirah trademarks. Mind you, it was fine, just not what I’d call a BIG PS.

If you are new to Petite Sirah, and crave subtlety rather than the assault with a blunt object behavior of the varietal give this one a try. Just don’t expect a Pinot! It isn’t big, but it isn’t little either.