Wine Number 9 or "The Journey Hits 10%"

2006 Boekenhoutskloof "The Wolftrap":

The wine label on this wine jokes that the name comes from when the first settlers occupied the area. They setup a wolftrap to keep the wolves away and never has a wolf, real or imaginary, been seen. Of course, wolves are not indigenous to southern Africa.

This wine was tasty for the price. I received this wine [2 of them] from the Garden State Wine Club and have heard of the wine discussed on the WLTV forums so was excited to try it. For example, in a thread on the "perfect $100 case" this wine came up many times. I must say I was not overly impressed, though the wine is good. I couldn't get past the oak on the palate and had trouble picking up any other flavors. The nose was better, noticeable fruit and what reminded me of a woody basement, sort of a musty smell, NOT unpleasant, that may have been what is referred to as leathery. Like I said the wine is good and I recommend it to people not afraid of oak, it's just not my style.

For my wine journey I've already done Syrah [50% in Wolftrap] but have not done Mouvedre [48%], the grape most commonly associated with Chateauneuf du Pape. There is also 2% Viognier but that's not enough to include for me... I will taste a Viognier another time.

Wine Count: 9. Grape Count: 10.

Wine number 8:

2003 Wellington Vineyards Zinfandel

Some information about Wellington is below. This is my first Zinfandel of my journey, but not my first Zin overall. Zinfandel is actually a grape that I'm a big fan of but have been turned off by some subpar offerings such as Starfire [HOLY OAK!!!] and Amazin [just sort of blah]. Anyway, here is what I have to say about this . It is an excellent wine, bringing back what I loved about some early zinfandels I've had and was worried were the exception. Definite cherry notes and what could possibly be light light currant though probably not. [It reminded me of currant but then I smelled my currant jam and it didn't match... but it still reminded me of it if that makes any sense at all.] Definitely fruit forward, a bit acoholic but not overly. Like I said, excellent. Some time will probably smooth it out. Wish I had more frankly... maybe I'll contact Peter Wellington and convince him to ship me a bunch.

Wine Count: 8. Grape Count: 9.

Wine Number 7 or "The 1st Truly Bad Bottle":

Clinch Mountain Winery Vandergriff Reserve:

You see... I have this sickness, and it has several symptoms. I'll be in a winery tasting wine, and the wine will taste fine, in most cases even good. I'll want to walk out with a case, or at least a couple of bottles. Then I'll get home and the wine will definitely not be as good as I remembered, or worse even flat out poor. This has happened with Warwick Valley's Pinot Noir, and now with the Clinch Mountain selections I've purchased [I have two others].

Clinch Mountain winery is a winery nestled in the mountains of northeastern Tennessee. We visited while down there for my grandfather-in-law's funeral. In order to understand Tennessee wine, you need to know the following things about the state. 1st) The climate is actually decent, even excellent, for growing grapes. 2nd) The state's laws are debilitating to wineries. Wineries are restricted and must use a certain percentage of Tennessee grapes. They are also restricted to a certain amount of wine production per year. Of course if you make whiskey you can make whateverTF you want. Many wineries around the country grow their business by importing grapes from California and all over the world, thereby growing their customer base and perfecting their trade before they are able to use their own grapes. In Tennessee you can't do this unless there is widespread crop failure. 3rd) It is at the infancy of winery popularity, meaning you can probably count on 1, maybe 2 hands the amount of really GOOD wineries. 4th) Sweet, sugarfied wines sell like hotcakes. 5th) It is a FELONY to ship or receive wine as a private consumer. So you can understand what we're dealing with here. [Progress in this last avenue is being made, however, due to the increasing popularity of wine and the vino-biz.]

Tasting Notes: All that said, this wine is not good. Even the dry versions of the wines at Clinch Mountain are sugary. My tongue actually kind of hurt afterwards. I did get two grapes knocked out, though, because according to the website their Vandergriff reserve is made up of the Merechal Foch grape and the Campell Early (or Island Belle) grape. There better wines from Tennessee so I will wait to include that state.

Wine Count: 7, Grape Count: 8.

The Wine Journey Continues, Bottles 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6:

2006 Ruffino Chianti:

Brought a magnum of this to some friends' place and there are many people [all 6 of you? hehe] who will read this and instantly think, "Ugh, chianti, and Ruffino at that!" Whatever, the wife and I love chianti and Ruffino is no exception. It's dryness and easy-drinking qualities fit our palates, and the overall inexpensiveness of it fits our budget. Besides, it's an easy way to bring us back to our honeymoon in Tuscany where Ruffino was one of the less-expensive options on completely overwhelming wine lists.

Tasting notes: It is better than your basic chianti. For chianti fans and Tuscany fans, this offering can give you a cheap way to figure out what sort of year 2006 was in Tuscany. This is not 100% Sangiovese according to the website, and according to Italian law it can contain as little as 75%. No word on the other grapes contained per either the bottle or the website. All in all, a decent value for fans of Chianti. Good wine to open at those big dinners where you're afraid to uncork your more impressive bottles.

Wine Count: 2. Grape Count: 3. Country Count: 2

2007 Stellenbosch Winery "Oracle of the Sun" Shiraz:

This is one of our repeat bottles... well, it's a repeat wine anyway. The vintage is different. We had the 2006 and did something we rarely do... we saved the bottle to make sure we knew what to look for. Took this to the party mentioned in the chianti paragraph above and it was a big hit. One person was acclaiming its pairing with chocolate. The wine is from South Africa, which explains the availability of a wine from the year 2007.

Tasting notes: I apologize for my notes in this entire edition of my blog. I did not write anything down and am going from memory. What I can say is that wine is a winner. It is not overly fruity and sweet like some Australian shirazes. It is a huge value, and fans of dryer shiraz should feel safe in trying it at $12-13 that it is offered.

Wine Count: 3. Grape Count: 4. Country Count. 3

2003 Wellington Vineyards Merlot:

This is a wine I purchased on wine.woot.com. It's an interesting site that sells one wine offering per week [in a bundle of usually 2-4 wines, sometimes as many as 6], at competitive prices that are almost always the lowest you can find. What's better is the offering are usually not available readily, and they are usually varied, containing 3 or 4 different wines. In the Wellington example, they offered a Merlot, Zinfandel, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon and in your state you may be able to find the Merlot and the Syrah, but not the others, or vice versa. Hell, this week they're offering Chaucer's Mead [which I bought]. The downside is not all states are offered as shipping destinations all the time, which is due to the fact that the shipping licenses are worked according to the winery, not woot.com. Also, if you live in a state that has legistators and distributors that absolutely don't give a rat's ass about their customers [New Jersey, Indiana, and Massachusetts I believe, possible Arizona], it will take you forever to get your wine, anywhere from 1 to 3 months. I GOT A CAR FROM SWEDEN MANUFACTURED ESPECIALLY FOR ME IN LESS TIME.

The wines themselves are made by one Peter Wellington, a winemaker that has embraced the forum community on wine.woot and regularly posts his thoughts and wine experiences there. His posts are so informative that I couldn't pass up a chance to taste his wines, and I was not let down. This wine is labeled as Sonoma Valley and contains 100% Merlot. Peter believes in making wines that express the character of the grapes and the land.

Tasting Notes: Not being huge Merlot drinkers we brought this to my mother's house, who is a big merlot drinker. I remember it being hot at first, but it did open up. I remember what I took to be a sour cherry smell and taste. The wine is good but I would not repurchase, but that should not be an indication of the other wines, which are excellent and you will read about later.

Wine Count: 4. Grape Count: 5. Country Count: 4. State Count. 1.

2006 RedHeads Studio "The Red Sedan":

This is a Shiraz/Malbec blend from Australia that was sent to me by the 4 Seasons Wine Club, of which you can read a review below. The short version, the customer service is excellent, and the wines are great for the price. The story behind RedHeads is that the owner purchased an old bar and hired vintners right out of school, you know, the ones usually "learning" by carrying grape bins and cleaning up the workspace. One thing you need to know before you read my tasting note is this: YOU MUST DECANT/STRAIN THIS WINE.

Tasting Notes: Holy sediment, Batman!! The first time I tried this wine I did not decant and no lie there was about a tablespoon of GUNK in the bottle, not to mention the cloudiness of the wine itself. This is fixed by straining the wine into a decanter, and rinsing out the bottle itself to relieve the caking that has occured. That said, the wine is decent and actually very very good. A bit alcoholic on the nose and palate but that goes away fairly quickly and pretty expressive fruit is revealed in its place. This wine is 77% Shiraz and 23% Malbec. Shiraz has already been tasted and I feel adding Malbec to my list as a blend grape is an injustice, so I will knock out the grape and Argentina at a later date.

Wine Count: 5. Country Count: 5.

2002 Kiona Proprietary Blend:

This is another wine from 4 Seasons Wine Club with a mix of 59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 11% Cabernet Franc [which I will not include in the count and will taste later]. This wine is produced in Washington State.

Tasting Notes: Honestly I don't know what it tasted like because all I could taste was alcohol. There was some fruit in there but not much. The next time I have this wine I will decant the thing for a good 30 minutes before even attempting to sniff it.

That's it for this installment, it was a busy weekend unfortunately don't have more detailed notes but I hope you enjoy it. The journey is moving along nicely and hasn't stalled yet, but I'm sure it will at some point. Here's to moving forward... CHEERS!

Today's Tally:
Wine Count: 6. Grape Count: 6. Country Count: 4. State Count: 2.

The beginning of a Wine Journey: Bottle Number 1:

On the WLTV Forums http://tv.winelibrary.com/forum someone posted an interesting link about the Wine Century Club. Basically put, it is an exclusive wine drinking club in which it's members have tasted wines made from 100 different grapes. I thought this was a great idea and really epitomized what Gary Vaynerchuk of WLTV is trying to do, which is get people to try different wines, different grapes, from different countries. As many as you can, for as long as God puts breath into your body.

I figured, why not take it a step further? How about sampling wines from every state in the Union? Or from 50 different countries around the world? Every single Italian, Spanish and French province? Or 50 different white grapes?

It was an intriguing idea, and last night I decided to start on this quest, from square one, which means all wines previously tasted have no bearing on this quest or the list that ensues. It's not THAT much of a loss, really. Because most of the odd grapes I've had I intend to have again [Zweigelt comes to mind].

So without further ado, I bring you wine number 1:

2006 Weinhaus Lang Kreuznacher Kronenberg Spatlese.

The thing about German wines, is that the labels are difficult, if not impossible, for the newbie wine drinker to decipher. [In fact, the producer, Weinhaus Lang, was added after research, see below.] Is there a grape in there somewhere? What's the producer's name? Hell, I thought it was a riesling until I looked at the back of the label!! In fact, I decided to do some research here and include information on the producer and such, and I found out I wrote down the area and classification of the wine but not the producer!! Through my google searching and extensive research I've found out that the wine I was drinking was produced by Weinhaus Lang. *changes his remaining bottles in CellarTracker*

At any rate, Kreuznach is an area in the southwest of Germany, located in the Rheinland-Pfalz state, and Kronenberg is the subregion in which the grapes were grown [Nahe Valley, to be even more specific]. Spatlese describes when the grapes were harvested, in this case about a week after full ripening, producing a more intense flavor [as opposed to Kabinett, which is right when they are ripe].

The grapes included are 60% muller-thurgau and 40% silvaner, two grapes I had never heard of. Silvaner is the older grape of the two, muller-thurgau having been created through a crossing of Riesling and Madeleine Royal. Some trivia for you, Silvaner was the dominant grape in Germany until the 1970s when muller-thurgau overtook it. And later on THAT changed when people thought it was a lower quality grape [not unlike what happened to merlot in this country], when it was obviously overtaken by riesling.

Here are my tasting notes: Sort of a gasoline smell which I could be imagining. Sweet, like dried apricots which I have subsequently discovered are in the official notes of the distributor, producing a self-satisfying pat on the back that my palate is better than I thought. Drinkers of sweeter rieslings will like this wine I think. It is different, though, and in my opinion worth the $12 or so I ended up paying for it, and worth having 4 bottles of it from 4 Seasons Wine.


At any rate, there you have it. Wine Count: 1. Grape Count: 2. Country Count: 1. Here is a pic of the Nahe Valley, I think. My journey has begun. I wonder if I'll finish it.