Tonight, once again I pop the cork on a bottle of A to Z Chemin de Terre ... sadly this is my last bottle of this totally delicious wine and I am so happy that I waited to give it one last go. The last time I opened a bottle was in August 2010, before that it was July 2010 and then at some earlier times (because at one point I had 5 bottles of this wine in my cellar). This really is a kitchen sink wine as it had about 7 or 8 different varieties in the blend, and some you never would have pegged to be grown in Oregon (Sangiovese anyone?). But now some 7 years from vintage date I can tell you the wine has held up extremely well and currently has smoky blackberry notes with cassis and black cherry, lots of fruit left in it for a wine of this age - it was smooth, elegant and really sexy in the glass. I know we had some people come over and I have to tell you I have no idea what they drank - I just know I enjoyed this.
Showing posts with label USA - Oregon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label USA - Oregon. Show all posts
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Lazy Sunday - One White / One Red both Pinot Family Members (Ontario / Oregon)
The sun is shining for the first time in awhile this Sunday ... so we decided to watch it from the comfort of our den (after all it was still just 5 degrees out), put on the new Louis CK special ("Oh My God" - very funny) and watch a bunch of other things, while trying to decide what we should have for dinner on our new wheat-free diet (sorry, lifestyle change). We came up with some kind of pizza concoction made with cauliflower - my wife asked, "what happens if it doesn't taste good?" - I responded, "well, we've always got wine." And with that we each opened a bottle. She, a bottle of Huff Estates 2011 Pinot Gris and me, a bottle of Maysara Winery 3o Pinot Noir from Oregon (read: Three Degrees). I have recently reviewed the Huff so it's all linked up, but this is my first experience with Maysara wine. Turns out it is an organic/biodynamic winery out of Oregon and for the most part when I see a US winery playing with the biodynamic I get a little queasy ... I just don't think they have it quite down pat yet ... it's just too new to them. Anyway, I did not know this about the wine before I sipped at it, I found the wine incredibly earthy with hints of vegetation that were not all together pleasant. That's when I inspected the bottle and thought I would try to give it the benefit of the doubt. Next up on the nose and palate was a mushroom-iness ... after about 45 minutes to an hour I began to find some fruit. First came cranberry then a little later some sour cherry came by for a stay ... and thankfully the earthy, mushroom and vegetation took a back seat. Was this my favvourite Pinot ever ... not really ... but it did come across better in an hour than it did from the start. As for the pizza, not bad at all.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Sokol Blosser 2010 Pinot Noir - Dundee Hills (Oregon)
A few weeks back I wrote an entry in my Ottawa Life blog about a couple of wines from Sokol Blosser (a highly regarded Oregon Pinot Noir producer) of wines they blended from around the country to make easy drinking, non-vintage blends ... those blends, I would then assume, would get their name out there into the wider world and get people interested in trying what has, or will, make them famous: Pinot Noir. Tonight, I gave a go to a wine that is more along the lines of what Sokol Blosser is all about, a Pinot Noir from their beloved state of Oregon in the Willamette Valley. This Pinot had an earthy, red currant, raspberry, violet and cranberry cocktail nose, while the palate delivered earthy and acidity in it's very first few sips ... from there is mellowed and really showed itself. Vanilla was one of the main flavours backed by a fresh cranberry tartness and some sour cherry ... but the really exciting part of this wine was the cherry replay on the finish - you swallowed and waited about 2-3 seconds and suddenly your mouth was filled with the replay of cherry ... and then it was gone ... but it was that quick replay that made you want to take sip affter sip after sip, just so you could experiece it again - all done with a lovely freshness.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Adelsheim Pinot and Coudoulis Lirac (Oregon / France)
It's Sunday, the last day of the Ontario Wine Awards judging - the day traditionally saved for the sweeties ... and it went off without a hitch. Afterward, during lunch, someone pulled out a bottle of Adelsheim 1994 Polk County Pinot Noir - Seven Springs Vineyard, an few ooo's and a couple ahh's went around the room. People who were preparing to leave suddenly shucked their coats and grabbed a glass. The cork went pop and the wine splashed into a number of glasses. Tony Aspler proclaimed that 1994 was a good year in Oregon, as he eyed up the bottle. Now we all hold our collective breaths as we look at the wine our glass, the room goes quiet, there is a universal sniffing sound, some slurps and swishes as we taste. Not half bad for a 16 year old Pinot. The nose is earthy with dried cranberry, and forest floor / dried leaves notes. Still has decent acidity and some tannins to back it up - the tannins overwhelm the fruit but there is still some stuffing here that makes it enjoyable with dried fruit and a chalky finish ... big thanks to Jan for this.
Later that evening, as I am whipping up some dinner (hamburgers) I grab a bottle of Domaine Coudoulis 2006 Lirac - a blend of Grenache, Syrah ad Mourvedre ... The wine is big and bold and spicy. The nose is full of red berry fruit, white pepper and blackberries while the palate is peppery, spicy with blackberry, cassis and big tannins. Turned out to be a perfect mach for the meat. What an interesting day for wine.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Sokol Blosser Meditrina (6) and an Old Ontario Cab Franc (Oregon / Ontario)
Okay, the way I read the documentation that came with this wine was that it was a blend of three different grape varieties from three different parts of the U.S.: Pinot Noir / Syrah / Zinfandel (from Oregon / Washington / California respectively). So I thought instead of just I giving it a try I would take it to class and give the students a go at it: see if they could identify it and then find out if they liked it. The wine started off okay with a very fruit driven nose of plum, cherry and black currant, someone sniffed some pepper in the mix too, but I did not pick it out (something tells me they took a sip before it was time). On the plate that aforementioned pepper came screaming out of the glass and onto the palate, almost intrusively so, it overpowered everything else and no fruit was apparent ... then the finish turned all bitter and unappealing. Ten minutes later we went back to the smell and there was a rancid butter aroma beginning to creep out of the glass. Sorry to say that the Meditrina was not as appealing a wine as its white counterpart: Evolution, which I enjoyed the previous night. Out of the eight students that stayed to try the wine only one said they enjoyed it.
We moved on to a Southbrook 2002 Triomphe Cabernet Franc (Ontario), it started poorly with everyone giving the nose a hard time and the palate an even rougher time. But with some time in glass and a constant aeration, decanting would have been a better option. Everyone admitted that it certainly got better the longer it sat and by the time we were ready to wrap up class everyone wanted to know where to buy a bottle - alas, I told them, wine is a finite item and it has been sold out for many a moon.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Sokol Blosser Winery Evolution White - 14th Edition (Oregon)
This is an intriguing wine to say the least - this white wine has 9 grapes in it, and as luck would have it I lost the piece of paper listing the 9 grapes, but I do remember Pinot Gris, Riesling, Muller-Thurgau and other grapes being thrown in - this is not random, according to the bottle: "Happenstance? Coincidence? Chaos? Not a chance. This bottle you hold is a deliberate, pre-meditated attempt to advance the entire wine universe a notch or two". It does go as far as saying "Lucky Number 9" on the label - so it does infer a certain amount of luck went into this grouping of grapes. But as for the wine in the bottle it really was something fun and enjoyable for a weeknight. The nose bounced between citrus and tropical for the first little bit, before settling on tropical for the rest of its time in the glass. I decided to stop trying to find the plethora of white fruits and just enjoy the smell, which was really the greatest lure of this wine. The flavours proved to be just as nice and enticing with a decent amount of acidity. The only problem I found was with time the wine flattened and as it became warm lost a lot of the playfulness in the glass - so my advice: Keep it Chilled - which is what I believe the wines wants you to do anyway, as the top of the bottle proclaims: Chill, open, pour, sip, chill.
Monday, August 23, 2010
A to Z WineWorks 2006 Chemin de Terre (Oregon)
I have written about this wine a few times, I tried it during a Schott Zwiesel glassware tasting and was blown away by it ... needless to say I bought a few bottles on the spot (I shared the case with a friend). Last night I once again opened a bottle and poured it slow (into a Schoot Zwiesel of course) and drank it slower ... by hour two the wine had this absolutely beautiful raspberry-vanilla-pepper nose and a taste to match ... the reason I tell you this is because I don't think this wine has remained in my glass for that length of time ever, so it was quite the revelation. Tomorrow I'll try something new, I promise. Cheers.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Chemin de Thirty Bench (Oregon / Ontario)
Last night on the island (near North Bay) saw us consuming quite a few bottles of wine - that's good because there were nine of us so two bottles just wouldn't do. Though there were two that made the biggest impression and they were the 2006 Chemin de Terre from A to Z Wine Works in Oregon - this is just a fun red made from 7 different grape varieties, pure fruit enjoyment here. The other was from Ontario, this was the "serious" after dinner red that most of us enjoyed, full of black fruit and lovely flavour - the winner of the evening: Thirty Bench 2007 Red; what a beauty.
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