WineRabbi
Don’t just drink wine. Experience it.
Below are the events that we recommend for this weekend and beyond. Click on an event’s title to visit its official web site.
There’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.
We’re on the road today and do not expect to be able to post again until tomorrow. Tune in then for our newest Weekday Wine!
For 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.
Below are the events that we recommend for this weekend and beyond. Click on an event’s title to visit its official web site.
Ed’s Red Napa Valley 2005 is a mixture of Bordeaux varietals (47% Cabernet Franc, 11% Merlot, and 11% Cabernet Sauvignon) with Syrah (16%) and Petite Sirah (13%), and in stereotypical California style, it is enormous. The intensity of its purplish ruby red color – it’s practically opaque – was a nice clue as to its large body, but we only experienced the full effect when we took a sip. Aside from the filling texture, we could easily feel the heat of the high alcohol content (15%), which was fortunately moderated by plenty of acidity. In the nose, we found a mixture of spice, prune, and cranberry, and after taking a sip, we found flavors that were more of the same.
As we’ve mentioned before, huge “new world” wines aren’t typically our thing, but in our bottle of Ed’s Red Napa Valley we were happy to have deviated from the lighter style that we usually prefer.
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.
Bliss Bar was not at all what we were expecting. With an hour to spare before we picked up our little boy, we popped down to 24th Street for an early evening glass of wine. In a neighborhood that is known for its Saturday morning farmer’s market, its babystrollers, and its Priuses, we would not have anticipated Bliss Bar’s hip and sensual interior, complete with plush couches, mood-lighting, and a faux-metal fireplace (lit, in fact, by candles).
While the cocktail list is the real draw — featuring yummy drinks such as the lychee lemon drop and the pomegranate parfait — beer and wine are also available. And every first Friday of the month, from 5 to 7 p.m., Bliss Bar co-sponsors a neighborhood wine tasting with PlumpJack Noe Valley, where for $5, wine lovers have a chance to sample six kinds of wine in Bliss Bar’s main room.
We can’t claim to know what the crowds are like on a weekend night, but at least on a Monday early evening, we had practically the entire bar to ourselves. It was an uplifting way to end the most depressing day of the week!
www.BlissBarSF.com
4026 24th Street
San Francisco, California 94114
(415) 826-6200
We bought our bottle of Martinsancho Rueda Verdejo 2007, from the Rueda region of northern Spain, last weekend while picking up supplies for our picnic in Mill Valley (see Monday’s posting for more about the picnic site). For those of you unfamiliar with Verdejo, click here for a neat description provided by Denomination of Origin Rueda’s official web site.
Picture this: 75 degrees; clear, sunny skies; the smell of redwoods in the air; and a chilly glass of golden-colored, dry, well-balanced white wine in hand. As you might imagine, the wine complimented our outing perfectly.
We found lots of apples in the nose along with a significant degree of nuttiness. There were also green scents and flavors typical of a Sauvignon Blanc – which we felt it resembled more than any other varietal – but the finish was nice and limey.
Where to get it: We bought our bottle at Mill Valley Market. 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.