Jul

29

chateau-la-touche-muscadet-2006.jpgThere’s no doubt in our minds that some wines — especially, simple but cheap and delicious bottlings – are best appreciated when enjoyed like a regular drink (e.g., beer), without much analysis.  

The Château la Touche Muscadet, a completely dry white from the Loire Valley’s western end, is most definitely one of these wines.  While nothing fancy, its light body and excellent structural quality made it extraordinarily pleasing to kick back with while watching a bit of evening TV the other night, and its flavors of peach and lime were easy to enjoy.  

This one’s a true crowd-pleaser and a no-brainer at $13.

Where to get it: We bought our bottle at Plumpjack Wines in Noe Valley.  They ship.  You can also find it using the Snooth search function under “Wine Locator” in the right hand column of this page, or by visiting wine-searcher.com or winezap.com. 

Jul

24

la-grande-vignolle-2005.jpgFor today’s posting, I thought I’d switch things up a bit and write down my thoughts about our Weekend Wine as I’m tasting it.  Today’s bottle is Domaine Filliatreau’s La Grande Vignolle 2005, a Cabernet Franc from the Saumur-Champigny region of the Loire Valley.  Here goes…

I’m sitting next to my glass right now, and as I tilt it and look in I’m seeing a fairly dense ruby red, which is surprisingly only slightly lighter in color than the Ed’s Red from Tuesday’s posting.  With the first sniff, I’m picking up dark cherry and a bit of leafy greenness.  Now for a sip…. wow, as I swish it around, I’m getting a strong blast of leafy greenness with only a touch of the dark cherry.  The green flavor is lasting all the way through the finish, which is lingering as I type. 

Nice balance: it’s light on acidity but also fairly light in alcohol, and the tannin gives it good backbone.  I’m really liking the soft, fruit-juicy texture.

Not bad at all!!

This is an unfiltered wine, so there’s a little bit of expected sediment.  

Where to get it: We bought our bottle at Plumpjack Wines in Noe Valley.  They ship.  You can also find it using the Snooth search function under “Wine Locator” in the right hand column of this page, or by visiting wine-searcher.com or winezap.com.   

Jun

3

The Domaine de la Pépière Cuvée Granit 2006 is classified as a Vin de Pays (the link is to Wikipedia), which is a classfication level below that of the French wines, appellation d’origine contrôlée, that we’ve reviewed in the past, and the wine hails from a poducer known more for its whites — Muscadet, to be precise — than reds.     

Still, we found this blend of Cab Franc, Merlot, and Malbec from the Loire Valley to be so very nicely balanced, flavorful, and light as a feather in terms of body that we felt it was a perfect Weekday Wine candidate.

We picked up two flavors that dominated our glasses: green bell pepper and smoke.  But what this wine lacked in complexity was more than made up for in terms of its simple, easy-drinking character.  This is a crowd-pleaser that would be an excellent companion to a home-cooked meal.

Where to get it: We bought our bottle at K&L Wines in San Francisco.  They ship.  You can also find it using the Snooth search function under “Wine Locator” in the right hand column of this page, or by visiting wine-searcher.com or winezap.com.

May

15

It has been sweltering hot in San Francisco in the past couple of days.  Of course, as some of you may know, “hot” in San Francisco doesn’t have quite the same meaning as it does anywhere else.  For example, I remember when we first moved to the Bay Area from New York City, and we overheard someone characterize 80-degree weather as a heat wave – we had just left New York’s sticky, 90+ degree summer humidity, and so to us, that just sounded like gobbledygook.  Fast foward a year later, though, when we finally experienced that same weather for ourselves without air conditioning (which houses in San Francisco typically lack), and that same statement made a lot more sense.  I only share this recollection with you because, at the moment, Weather.com says that it’s 71 degrees in San Francisco, our thermostat reads 87, and our house feels like a sauna.   

Should you find yourself in a similar situation this summer, we suggest picking up a bottle of Jean Francois Merieau “Bulles” Touraine Sparkling, sticking it in the fridge for an hour or two, popping the cork, and drinking up!  We’re confident that you’ll find this sparkler to be brilliantly refreshing, just as we have found it to be during these past couple ”hot” days.

The organic “Bulles” Touraine Sparkling – composed of 80% Chenin Blanc and 20% Sauvignon Blanc – was produced in the Touraine appellation of the Loire Valley (i.e., it is not Champagne, although like Champagne, it was aged sur lie (the link is to Wine Spectator’s free online glossary)).

We loved the lightness of body and the juicy flavors of apple, pear, and a twist of lime, and as we polished off the bottle last night on our deck while watching the city reflect the sun’s pink light at dusk, we were sure that the drink in our glasses could not have been more appropriate. 

Where to get it: We bought our bottle at K&L Wines in San Francisco.  They ship.  You can also find it using the Snooth search function under “Wine Locator” in the right hand column of this page, or by visiting wine-searcher.com or winezap.com.

Apr

17

Last night’s Wine Library TV show (click the link to view the episode at WLTV) was about the Chenin Blanc grape and how it deserved more respect — this couldn’t have been better timing from our perspective, because just a couple of nights ago we opened one of our favorite ever bottles of that varietal: Prince Poniatowski’s Clos Baudoin Vouvray 2001. 

In white wines, as we’ve mentioned before, we tend to prefer crispness that straddles the line between high acidity and no puckeriness on the finish.  The Clos Baudoin was that — bright and refreshing — but also creamy due to aging, and it left literally no trace of bitterness at the back end.  We couldn’t imagine a more appropriate wine to drink chilled on a hot afternoon.     

We detected pineapple, smoke, minerals, and creamy lemon on both the nose and palate, and interestingly, we also found the scent of the wine to be a little bit deceptive: while it smelled sweet like lemonade, it turned out to be completely dry to the taste.

One last thing to note: the Poniatowski family no longer owns the Clos Baudoin estate, which it owned since 1918, meaning that if you think you’ll love it like we did, you might want to spring for a couple bottles in case you ever get the urge down the road to enjoy it again.    

Where to get it: We bought our bottle at Vintage Berkeley in the East Bay.  They ship.  You can also find it using the Snooth search function under “Wine Locator” in the right hand column of this page, or by visiting wine-searcher.com or winezap.com.

Jan

24

We opened this bottle last night, and I can’t wait to fill up another glass this evening.  One of my favorite things about wine in general is that the same variety of grape grown in two different regions can produce wines with entirely different characteristics due to the influence of factors like soil composition and sun exposure.  If you’d like to experience this for yourself, compare (1) the Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand that I reviewed last week with (2) the Sancerre for which this post is named, which is a Sauvignon Blanc from the Sancerre appellation of France’s Loire Valley.

On comparison, you’d find that both of these wines have citrus flavor, but the citrus manifests itself as tart grapefruit and lime in the Whitehaven, as opposed to chalky lemon with a slight tinge of Granny Smith apple in the Sancerre.  Most dramatic of all is the difference in texture: while the Whitehaven’s is sharp and crisp, the Sancerre’s is silky and smooth. 

If you do get a chance to try the two bottles discussed above, keep your reactions fresh in mind, because eventually we’ll add a California Sauvignon Blanc to the mix.

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