The Grape White North -- Wines of British Columbia

Lining 'em up in Vancouver...

The jumping off point for my summer vacation with the Sweet Partner in Crime was Vancouver. Neither of us had ever been up to that particular area of the Pacific Northwest, and we’d heard that it was a really cool city. We weren’t disappointed. We ate and drank like royalty when we weren’t putting considerable miles on our shoes and the tires of rented bikes.

One of our missions for our time in Vancouver was to become acquainted with the wines of British Columbia. As you know, we’re big fans of the wines of Oregon and Washington in this space, and it seemed logical that wine grapes shouldn’t be constrained by silly things like national borders. At our various stops around the city, we tried to sample wines from across the region.

“Wines from Canada? Never heard of them,” could be crossing your mind. I wouldn’t be surprised. British Columbia’s total wine grape production in 2014 was about 1/6 of the production of the state of Washington alone. BC wine is prized across Canada. About 80% of BC wine is consumed within the province, while about 15% is distributed across the rest of the country. Only about 5% of the total production is exported.

Why worry about it? Because these are pretty damned good wines! And production in BC has been gradually increasing – more than doubling in the last 10 years. Which means, I hope, that more of these wines will start showing up on US shelves.

A quick primer on wines from British Columbia, in case you run into them. The province has a designation, BC VQA, which stands for British Columbia Vintners Quality Alliance. This designation means that the wine has met certain standards of the region. In this case, a wine labeled BC VQA must be made from 100% BC grapes, 95% of which must come from the region designated on the label. (More on that in a sec.) The varietal listed on the label must comprise at least 85% of the wine’s composition. If it says “Merlot,” for instance, it’s at least 85% Merlot. Also, 85% of the grapes must be produced in the vintage on the label, which is somewhat different than most countries – in which most blends of grapes from different years would not carry a vintage date.

There are six major wine growing regions in British Columbia. The largest and best known is the Okanagan Valley (pronounced Oak-A-Noggin), which is about a five hour drive east of Vancouver towards the Interior, which is why we weren’t able to make it there on this trip. The bulk of BC wine comes from this region. Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands at the southern tip of V.I. are also major producers.

Merlot is the most planted red varietal, followed by syrah, pinot noir, cabernet franc, and cabernet sauvignon. Among whites, you’ll find pinot gris and chardonnay leading the way, followed by gewurztraminer, riesling, and sauvignon blanc. The wine styles are fairly consistent with the cool climate wines you would ordinarily find in Oregon, Washington, and along the Sonoma Coast.

The Painted Rock rundown...

After returning from our vacation, I reached out to some of the wineries whose wines we’d really enjoyed along the way. One of them, Painted Rock – an Okanagan winery in the town of Penticton – was good enough to send some samples along. My thoughts:

Painted Rock 2010 Merlot – Their merlot is a sizeable wine that definitely needs some time in air to limber up. Even after decanting, the fruit stayed hidden for a bit, bringing out lots of graphite flavors with some restrained tannins. Once the blueberry flavors started popping after the wine got some air, the combination is really robust. I found some nice dark fruit and floral scents on the nose. It’s pretty smelling for a big ol’ honkin’ red. If a good Bordeaux decided that it wanted to be a little fruitier and softer in order to play nicely with others, you’d have a pretty good idea of this wine. Quite muscular for a cool-weather wine. But that was tame compared to…

Painted Rock 2010 Syrah – Hooboy, this one’s a biggie. Like the merlot, it really needed some time and space in air to get at the flavors. Decant early! I think the SPinC was intimidated simply by the pour of this wine. It’s some seriously thick, inky juice. After enough time in air, the nose becomes quite pleasant, full of violet and plum. Don’t let the soft nose fool you. This Syrah makes me think of a steroidal Chateauneuf-de-Pape. Big, dark fruits and a sizable whallop of tannins greet you in a hurry. I didn’t find it out-of-balance at all, but it’s not for the faint of heart. We had it with a roasted chicken and potato dish, and it was a little too big. Divine with chocolate, though. The SPinC, who is currently palate-wise calibrated for summer wines, just slid it aside. More for me! I quite enjoyed it.

Painted Rock 2010 “Red Icon” – The Red Icon was, far and away, our favorite of the three wines. This is a beautifully balanced red, made from a traditional Bordeaux blend (merlot, cab franc, petit verdot, malbec, and cabernet sauvignon in order). The nose is full of blackberries with a really pretty floral undertone. The flavor is full of cherries and plums, and it’s potent without being overpowering. The tannins are certainly firm, but they keep to the back, allowing the fruit to really shine, along with some strong vanilla notes. The finish is a lasting balance of leather, dark fruit, and smoke. I think this wine’s right in its wheelhouse right now. We opened this over Labor Day weekend and had it with some burgers from the grill. Grilled meat and this wine get along famously.

The Merlot and Syrah are both about $28-30 US. The Red Icon, which I really highly recommend, goes for about $35-40.

Some others that we really enjoyed along the way were the Blue Mountain Gamay Noir, which tasted like a cru Beaujolais; and the Tyler Harlton Pinot Noir, which was brambly and earthy – just the way we like it. There were also several nice whites that we had a chance to sample, the best of which for me was the Kanazawa “Nomu” -- a luscious blend of viognier, semillon, and muscat blanc full of creamy citrus, orange blossom, and peach flavors that was absolutely delicious next to some fabulous sushi at downtown Vancouver’s Shuraku Sake House.

[Other suggestions for awesome food and drink in Vancouver: Rodney’s Oyster House in Yaletown for fresh raw oysters and “Caesars,” Salt Tasting Room on Blood Alley for a unique, flavor-filled experience in a “Hamsterdam” portion of the city; “tacones” and fish chowder at Go Fish! on Granville Island; delicious tapas at The Sardine Can in Gastown; the hip young crowd at Hapa Izakaya for “Japanese tapas;” and Uva Wine & Cocktail Bar for late night downtown cocktails, jazz, and a smooth end to an evening.]

The SPinC at Salt Tasting Room

If you get a chance to try some of these north of the border selections, do so. With the unpredictability of climate change will be doing to many of our domestic wine regions – these BC wines may soon emerge as an interesting alternative. Keep your eyes peeled.

Naked Vine Triple Italian -- Three for September's Start

Pinot grigio usually isn’t my speed.

While I’ve come to enjoy Italian whites more and more (I feel pretty safe with almost any varietal starting with “V”) – the light white workhorse grape of Italy doesn’t usually catch my fancy. Simply put, most of the Italian versions I try lean towards the flavor of lemon water. It’s not that these are bad wines, they’re usually just uninteresting, especially at the inexpensive end of the wine pool. That said, if you’re going to be sitting by a pool or relaxing outside on a warm day, they’re usually thirst-quenching critters.

When I got the offer from Dana at Wagstaff of three Italian “whites to beat the heat,” I accepted, of course, but I went into this tasting experience wine with, shall we say, no delusions of grandeur. I had three bottles in the shipment – two pinot grigio and one white blend. Here’s how they stacked up.

Stemmari (NV) Pinot Grigio – This Sicilian offering turned out not to be half-bad. It’s not a complex wine by any stretch, mind you. It’s not going to make you think much, but you’ll be pretty comfortable while you’re thinking of other things. It’s certainly light, but some depth develops there after a couple of sips. Happily, there wasn’t the typical watery finish here – I found it to be rather crisp and tart. The flavors run to the lime and peach. It’s also a pretty good food wine. I made seared scallops and didn’t feel like making a Chablis run that day, so I popped this instead. It worked better than I expected. For around $10 in the summertime, it’s a solid sipper.

Cliffhanger Vineyards 2013 Trentino Pinot Grigio – Traveling back to the Italian mainland, Trentino is the province in the Dolomite mountains where this wine hails from. The wine’s name is drawn because, well, the grapes are largely grown on the faces of the steep granite hills of the region. The bouquet reminded me of lemon cake. It tastes initially like it has some residual sugar, although there’s nothing about that in the wine notes. The body is fuller than I expected, almost chardonnay-ish in weight. The flavor is largely citrus fruit, more of that lemon-cakey flavor, and peaches. The finish, at least at the first few sips, tasted more astringent than crisp. It doesn’t really have that pinot grigio “snap” and almost tastes like there’s a little oak there. It wasn’t at the top of my list for this sort of sipper. Retails for about $13.

Stemmari 2012 “Dalila” White Wine – Back to Sicily for the execution of an interesting idea. The backbone of this wine is 80% Grillo, an autochthonal grape from Sicily. Grillo is a white grape that thrives in the Sicilian heat. It yields a high-alcohol white that is rarely used as a single varietal, since the wines tend to be even less flavorful than pinot grigio. Most Grillo actually ends up in the production of Marsala, the Italian fortified wine. So, someone at Stemmari got the idea to blend in about 20% Viognier for bulk and bouquet. At first try, the added Viognier contributes its characteristic peach blossom scent, but the body is much more reminiscent in style to a pinot grigio. The flavor is primarily citrus, with some honey and vanilla adding a little bit of interest. The finish is quite crisp and fairly abrupt, with just a little flavor of orange peel at the very end. It’s refreshing enough for a hot day, and I liked it more than a generic pinot grigio. Still, at $14, I could probably find an adequate summer sipper for a few dollars less, like the initial pinot grigio from this set.

Sonoma and the Snowball

The Sweet Partner in Crime and I made our first trip to Sonoma County in 2005. Our first stop upon entering the county, before even checking in and unpacking, was at Iron Horse Winery, where we cobbled together a lovely picnic amongst rows of Cabernet Sauvignon vines. We hit a couple of other wineries before making it to our B&B, where we went to a happy hour down in their “speakeasy” of a tasting room. In just half a day, we had learned quickly that we were surrounded by so many good wines…zins, cabs, syrahs, merlots…and I wanted…no, I needed…to try them all. In three days. I saw the light. My mission was clear.

I went a little crazy.

The Origin of Madness

I had some recommendations from my more knowledgeable friends of several wineries to hit and we kept adding to the list as we tried new wines. We zoomed though the valleys, bouncing from tasting room to tasting room like a meth-addled census taker. I thought a dozen tasting rooms a day seemed perfectly logical, starting at the first one to open and running the gamut until they closed up shop. Sure, we covered a lot of ground, but needless to say, this isn’t the most relaxing way to spend a vacation.

To the great benefit of my palate, my liver, and the SPinC’s willingness to keep me around, my strategy has changed a bit in the ensuing years. I have no more illusions about trying to drain the contents of entire valleys. So, on our recent return to Sonoma, rather than trying to run down a bunch of wineries someone else thought would be good, we took matters into our own hands based on our own conversations and connections once we arrived. The Naked Vine Snowball Technique was born.

The Snowball’s central idea comes from a research method called snowball sampling -- a recruitment technique in which participants are asked to assist researchers in identifying other potential subjects. In short, after someone takes a survey, the researcher asks, “Do you know other folks who might be interested in participating?” Those referrals leads to other referrals, growing in number as the virtual snowball rolls down the hypothetical hill.

How does this work with tasting rooms? Start at the place where you’re staying. They live there. They know things. Say something like, “We’re looking for a good place to start. We want somewhere fun, laid back, and not overly pricey.” Replace those descriptors with whatever you want…expensive wines, pinot noir specialists, great gift shop -- whatever floats your cork. You’ll end up with at least a couple of recommendations. Pop in to one of them and do a tasting. Chat. Enjoy. If you feel like you make a connection, then repeat your question to the good folks behind the bar. They live there. They know things. They’ll mention a couple of other places. Those places will mention other places. Patterns form in the recommendations. You now have your guide. Go forth and enjoy.

We wanted a different experience this time around, so we parked it in the actual city of Sonoma, which is in the southern portion of Sonoma County. Our previous trips were to the northern end of the county near Healdsburg, and the surrounding valleys. Sonoma has 26 tasting rooms in and around its city square. (In the past, I might have tried to hit them all.) We found a distinct contrast with those tasting rooms. Most places we’d been, the tasting rooms were basically outlet stores for well-established wineries with very recognizable names. In Sonoma, however, the tasting rooms were generally run by smaller operations at which many didn’t own vineyards themselves. Many of these winemakers bought grapes from vineyards they liked that fit their needs, producing excellent wine. I like that notion. Egalitarian.

We got to town, dropped our bags at the Inn at Sonoma (highly recommended), made a couple of inquiries to get us started, and off we went. Did we hit all 26? Nope. Not even half of them, truth be told. We had a lovely, relaxing time and made some wonderful discoveries along the way. Heck, we barely had to move our car! Here are our top experiences from the trip:

Two Amigos Winery – We remarked that we’ve had good luck with “tastresses” when we’ve started our little treks. Our first trip to Sonoma was kicked off by a woman named Annalise. This time, Michelle was the one to get our trip off on the correct foot. She was there along with Bob, one of the aforementioned “amigos.” The other amigo is an actor named Squire Riddell, whom you’ll recognize if you watched any TV in the 80’s…

He also played Ronald McDonald after Willard Scott headed to the Today show, so plenty of McDonald’s and clown-themed memorabilia adorn the tasting room.

They had plenty of decent wines. Their 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon was fascinating for a wine that young. I’ll be curious how it develops. The other highlights were their Viognier, a port made from Syrah, and a Syrah from GlenLyon – which is Riddell’s other winemaking venture. Needless to say, McDonald’s must have been a pretty good gig. Michelle and Bob gave us the initial seed for the snowball, leading us to a couple of the following tasting rooms. (http://twoamigoswines.com/)

Bump Wine Cellars – We missed throwing our annual Derby Day party because of our Sonoma trip, but we felt right at home walking into Bump’s tasting room to find a beautiful horse-themed art exhibition by an artist named Tej Greenhill. Bump’s tasting room was far and away our favorite, with warm, contemporary décor and comfortable places to relax and sip. Sip we did. Bump was the best value we found in Sonoma. The winemaker, Geordie Carr, specializes in fermenting wines at cooler temperatures to preserve the aromatics. He sources his grapes from all over Sonoma County through friendly partnerships he’s developed in his travels. Their chardonnay was delicate and nuanced with just a kiss of oak. I don’t classify many zinfandels as “delicate,” but Carr’s technique of slightly early picking and cool fermentation yielded a beautifully aromatic wine that drinks like a good pinot – even at 15.2% alcohol. With nothing (currently) in their portfolio over $28, it’s a good time to stock up. (http://www.bumpwine.com/)

R² Wine Company – Since we’re on a survey research kick, the SPinC, also sometimes known as the Queen of All Regressions, was so very excited to see a winery called R². The r-square statistic, also known as the measure of “explained variance,” is a key measure of many of her multivariate analyses. While the name of the winery has nothing to do with statistics (it’s named after co-founders Richard and Roger Roessler), the notion of “Sonoma wine variance” shone through here. In tasting through the R2 portfolio, we noticed a distinct difference between wines made from Sonoma “mountain fruit” vs. “valley fruit.” The mountain fruit wines in general had earthier, deeper flavors with a mineral character, while the valley fruit wines had bigger fruit flavors and stronger tannins. We enjoyed their Black Pine pinot noir ($26), which was a delicious general California pinot noir. Their Hein Vineyard Pinot Noir ($48) was “smoketacular!” according to my notes. Their “1331” Cabernet ($54) was a quintessential example of a mountain fruit wine, and it was hedonistically complex. (http://www.r2winecompany.com/)

Bryter Estates – Oh, where to begin with Bryter? If you forced me to pick a favorite from this trip, the top prize would go to Bryter with its collection of nuanced, happy wines. Bryter is one of the few wineries we encountered with female winemakers. Terin Ignozzi, the winemaker and co-owner with her husband Bryan (“Bryter” is a fusion of their names), has crafted a portfolio with great range and exceptional quality. All of their wines -- red, white, and rosé – are exceptionally harmonious and clean. The Sweet Partner in Crime remarked, when we tried their rosé after getting back home, that it “tasted like what our walk in Yosemite felt like – sunshine and fresh air.”

We heard in at least three different tasting rooms that we needed to try Bryter “for their bubbles.” No lie. The “Le Stelle” brut sparkler ($38) is excellent, with a nutty, green apple flavor and a creamy mouthfeel. That would have been worth the stop alone, but as we went down the line, we found more surprises. The “Vivant” sauvignon blanc ($34) is crisp and melony – pleasant, pleasant!. Their “Jubilee” rosé of pinot noir ($32) gets a double plus for the lingering fruit and the touch of oak beneath the clean flavor. Our favorite was their “Cadeau” Pinot Noir ($50). “Cadeau” translates as “gift” and was, simply, the best bottle we had on our trip. My note says, “So subtle, so beautiful.” This wine edged its way in with my faves among the Oregon pinots. A must-not-miss. (http://www.bryter.com/)

Walt Wines – Walt sources grapes from all over the west coast, and they do an interesting array of wines. The highlight of our visit with Liz and Terry, our pourers, was their “850 Mile Road Trip” where they showed pinots from the Shea Vineyard in Willamette Valley, Oregon, “The Corners” in Anderson Valley in Mendocino, and Rita’s Crown Vineyard in Santa Rita Hills. (All $65) The pinot flavors ranged “from brambles to boom!” across these three wines, and the tasting was a wonderful exploration of terroir. They also release a wine each year called “Pinpoint Extreme,” which is an anagram for “pinot experiment.” Last year, they added roasted stems to the fermentation. This year, they flash-heated some of the grapes until they exploded. Fun to try new stuff. (http://www.waltwines.com/)

Hawkes Wine – Memorable wine-wise for a really fantastic licorice-and-dark fruit flavored merlot ($35) sourced from vines planted on a seam of clay in one of the vineyards where nothing else would grow; some very well-balanced cabernets; and an estate-pressed extra-virgin olive oil (proceeds to a local kids charity) that blew us away. Before we went to Hawkes, though, I realized that I hadn’t packed very well, and I needed another t-shirt. Hawkes has a neat logo, so I picked one up to wear on our flight home. On the way to the Sacramento airport from Yosemite -- which followed Sonoma on our itinerary -- we stopped for lunch at a restaurant in Lodi called the Dancing Fox. The waitstaff was mostly male and powerfully metrosexual. At least three of them stopped by my table to ask, “Is that Hawkes Winery?” Lodi is about two hours from their tasting room, so I guess it’s the winery of choice for expensive-yet-casually dressed men. (http://www.hawkeswine.com)

Kamen Estate Wines – Kamen is the child of Robert Kamen, whose name you might not recognize, but you’d know his work. He’s the screenwriter for “Taps,” "The Karate Kid," “The Fifth Element,” “The Transporter,” “A Walk in the Clouds,” “Taken,” and various other films. He bought a property in the mountains with the paycheck from his first screenplay, not realizing that he was sitting on a goldmine. His wines were some of the best we tried on the trip, and they’re certainly not inexpensive. His top-of-the-line, “Kashmir,” runs $100+ per bottle. The Syrah ($75) and Cabernet ($80) are also top notch with layer upon layer of flavor. “Opulent” is as good a descriptor as any. “Darned awesome” would also fit. It’s worth a swing through their tasting room – both to try these wines and to hear Robert’s story, which stands in contrast, and made a very interesting bookend, to that of Two Amigos’ Squire Ridell. Needless to say, a commercial actor and a screenwriter have very different views on how wine should be made and how life lands you in various circumstances. While we were there, we were lucky enough to meet Robert himself, who popped into the tasting room briefly. He struck me as an affably sarcastic M.O.T. -- much the same way I hope people think of me. His "Sin while you can -- otherwise Jesus died for nothing" shirt will live forever in my memory. (http://kamenwines.com/)

In addition to all of the wines that you can sample, the town of Sonoma is home to any number of fabulous restaurants, and we worked our way through several. Try the Red Grape for lunch. La Salette is a Portuguese restaurant with fabulous variety and flavor. The Girl and the Fig is a local favorite – contemporary French. The El Dorado Kitchen does some neat takes on American classic cuisine. One of our favorite dining experiences, however, was the Tuesday night we were there – which coincided with the first Sonoma community farmer’s market of the year. The farmer’s market turns into a big community picnic, so we joined right in with a bottle of Bump rosé. Once things started winding down, many locals head over to Murphy’s Irish Pub for an oyster roast and multiple beers. After a few days of wine tasting, beer made for a great way to close a wonderful stretch of vacation.

Naked Vine One-Hitter: Conundrum

In my review of Franciscan Estates' Equilibrium, I referenced an old fave of mine called Conundrum -- one of my first gold standards for white wines when I was starting down the slippery slope of wine fandom. I received several emails from readers asking, in effect, "Well, what the heck is this Conundrum stuff?"

Good question. I hadn't had a bottle of Conundrum in years. When the Sweet Partner in Crime and I were courting, this was one of our "special occasion" wines. We would save the corks and write the occasion on each. When Conundrum made the environmentally positive decision to switch from corks to Stelvin screwtops, a bit of that romance was lost -- and we were broadening the scope of our wine knowledge anyway, so we often looked at other options.

Still, after I wrote that review, I was largely going from my memory of Conundrum's flavor. For the sake of full disclosure, I thought it would be a good idea to return to the scene of the....crime.

Conundrum started in 1989 at Caymus Winery. It bills itself as "The Original California White Blend," which wouldn't surprise me -- since at the time, most California wine was more or less single varietal. In the 2000's, the Wagner family, who owns Caymus, decided to split Conundrum off as its own brand. "Caymus Conundrum" simply became "Conundrum," but the wine remained the same, retailing for around $20. (Meanwhile, the Caymus brand became exclusively a high-end label. Those wines go for $60-70 and up.)

The wine is a proprietary blend of up to eleven different grapes -- but it always includes Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Muscat Canelli, and Viognier. The blend changes each year, depending on climate and harvest conditions. Conundrum also produces a red wine which is another "nontraditional" blend of red grapes. (My guess, however, knowing Caymus and reading the tasting notes -- would be that it's largely Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon, perhaps with some Pinot Noir thrown in.)

I was relieved that my memory was still pretty good regarding the flavor. The Conundrum 2011 White Wine is still a hefty white. The nose is very floral and the body substantial from the Viognier. The Chardonnay gives it a green apple-dominant flavor, along with some citrus and a honey-like sweetness. It's a fairly complex wine. There's enough acidity to keep it from being too sweet, although the honey and apple hang around on the finish. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd slipped some Riesling into the mix -- because it really reminded me of some of those flavors. For a food pairing, rich fish or chicken dishes or Asian spicy flavors work well.

If you're looking for a crowd-pleasing wine that's a little higher end, it's a solid choice. The Conundrum did illustrate how much my palate has changed over the years. Before I'd explored much wine, I really liked how full flavored this wine was. Trying it now, it's actually a little heavy for my palate. I usually prefer my whites a little bit crisper.  My vote for these similar white California blends would still be for the Equilibrium.

A Couple of Local Favorites

As more wineries pop up around here, I’m increasingly asked, “What are your favorite local places?” I have to take an invariable deep breath when I get that question to keep from being, shall we say, overly honest.

The view from La Vigna  Estate Winery -- Higginsport, OH

There’s a reason that the best known wines in North America aren’t grown in the Midwest. Is there some good juice out there in America’s heartland? Sure there is! Alas, the process of creating those wines is going to be much more difficult than making good wine in, say, Sonoma County.

Most grapes that thrive around here are either going to be our area’s indigenous grapes or hybrid grapes crossbred to withstand our humid summers and cold winters. Let’s face facts – most of the wines made from either of these grapes are inferior. I have yet to find a winemaker that could wring consistently good wine out of Norton or Chambourcin. (Especially the latter…by the Seven, that’s awful crap. Prove me wrong, someone.) Even the native stuff, like Catawba and Concord, can rise a level above Manischewitz, but not much more than that.

There are a few wineries and winemakers in the area that fly in the face of our oenological reality. A small number have the proper terroir to grow vinifera grapes – grapes like Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Viognier, Chardonnay, etc. The winemakers at these wineries also need the technical knowhow to make these grapes into decent wine. Most importantly, those folks must possess the level of bullheaded stubbornness that prevents one from settling for an inferior product. A couple of these combinations are in the vicinity of Ripley, Ohio – Kinkead Ridge Estate Winery and La Vigna Estate Winery.

Every year on Memorial Day & Labor Day weekends, many local wineries take the opportunity to release some of their new offerings. The Sweet Partner in Crime and I took a little roll down the road to Ripley to enjoy a beautiful day’s drive and sample some of their new goodies.

We started at Kinkead Ridge, where we got reacquainted with Nancy Bentley, co-owner of the place with Ron Barrett, the winemaker. Nancy handles all the “front of house” duties. Kinkead Ridge, available in many local establishments, releases their new whites on Memorial Day. (Labor Day is for the reds.) They were pouring their three new whites for the assembled folks.

They opened with their River Village Cellars 2012 White Wine, a “field blend” of seyval blanc, Riesling, chardonnay, and a few other grapes from their “experimental” block, including albarino. The result was a light, zippy, grapefruity white that calls for a porch and some warm weather. $10.

The Lineup at Kinkead Ridge

From there, they shared the Kinkead Ridge 2012 Viognier/Roussanne. This is my personal favorite of the wineries’ selections, and they’ve rarely missed on a vintage of this. This is a more tropical, creamy wine than the River Village with a very pleasant, perfumey nose. The crisp finish would make it a nice accompaniment to plenty of fish, shellfish, or chicken dishes. $17.

Finally, they poured their River Village Cellars 2012 Traminette. Traminette (technically a two-vinifera hybrid, but we’ll give it a pass) yields a wine that’s a little on the sweeter side. It’s got a similar profile to gewürztraminer, but without the fullness of flavor or pepperiness. It still creates a fruity product that’s friendly enough – especially with spicy foods. I liked it, but it came in third at this tasting. $10.

We also learned that Nancy and Ron are trying to sell Kinkead Ridge and move eventually to North Carolina for their “second retirement.” We will hate to see them go, for sure.

We then rolled back up US 52 a piece to Higginsport, where we checked in on the latest offerings from La Vigna. Brad Hively, La Vigna’s passionate winemaker, was quick to greet us when we bellied up to the tasting table. Brad had two new releases to share with the world this time around, as well as several of his past releases.

The first of his two new wines was the La Vigna 2010 Proprietary Red. This cabernet franc-based blend is the winery’s signature wide-release red. I thought it was even, balanced, and fairly straightforward at this point in its life. Aged for 26 months in barrel, it’s got plenty of potential. $24. I thought it was fascinating to taste this alongside the 2008 Proprietary Red, of which some still existed. The 2008 was somewhat fuller and more complex than the 2010 – giving a hint into how the ’10 might develop. We split on this. I like the ’08 a little better. The SPinC liked the ’10. Either would be lovely next to a nice hunk of grilled meat.

The second new release was something I’d not expected. Because of last summer’s climate, the grapes ripened too quickly, which ordinarily yields a wine that Brad said would not “have reflected what we’re trying to do up here.” Rather than make an overextracted, one-note red, Brad used the whole crop to make a dry rosé in the manner it’s made in places like Provence. The result was, in my opinion, fairly remarkable. I’m a dry rosé addict this time of year, and the La Vigna 2012 Carnevale Rosato di Cabernet Franc was excellent. Wonderful bold fruit, very dry but substantial body, and crisp to finish – you could easily have this alongside…well…just about anything, but risotto or Nicoise salad would be good options. At $15, it’s a good value as well. It is a “crack and drink” wine. We had a little bit left over, and it wasn’t as good the second day.

Hardtop!

We also had the opportunity to try one of the first “reserve” wines from La Vigna. Resulting from the “winning” barrel of 2008 juice at a recent barrel tasting, Brad made a wine he called “Hardtop,” sealed with a black wax capsule over the cork. This Bordeaux-style blend isn’t inexpensive – it’s around $40 at the winery; but it drinks like…well… a very good Bordeaux. I snagged a couple of bottles to stash for a couple of years, because I believe it’s potentially something special.

There are a few other wineries near Ripley with tasting events on those days. If you’re looking for a nice Memorial Day getaway, it’s worth the little trip up the road. Kinkead Ridge’s tasting room is open Saturdays for the rest of the summer from 11-5. La Vigna is open on Fridays from 2-7 pm and Saturdays from 12-5. For more information, see Kinkead Ridge at http://www.kinkeadridge.com/ and La Vigna at http://www.winegrown.com/

The Naked Vine Does Naked Wines

Not long ago, my father-in-law sent me a voucher for “$100 off a case from Naked Wines” that he’d received in one publication or other. A Benjamin off a case? A name that already makes me feel like a cousin? Sure. I’ll bite. I wondered what the catch might be – but still…what’s the worst that can happen? I plopped myself down, opened up the ol’ browser, and got to work.

(In case you’re wondering…no, the worst didn’t happen.)

Naked Wines is an interesting online “wine club” of sorts. Rather than the typical wine club model where a customer receives a shipment every so often, paying along the way – Naked Wines works on an escrow model. The process goes something like this. If you become one of the “Naked Angels” club members, you agree to put $40/month into an account with them. You then can use this money at any point to purchase a quantity of wine via their website.

According to the site, the idea is to fund independent winemakers. In return, the club member receives wholesale pricing on the wines on the site, most of which are exclusively sold through Naked Wines. Seems like a good setup, potentially. (Although if the wines are generally not available for retail purchase, there’s no retail middleman to cut out in the first place…but I digress.) The discounts can be quite steep. The most expensive wine on the site “retails” for $75, but club members get it for $30. Club members also get $1 sample bottles with each case and free tastings if you’re lucky enough to visit one of these wineries.

You don’t have to become a Naked Angel to order from the site, though. You can use a voucher, as I did, or you can use a Groupon when one becomes available. You just pay the “retail” price, less whatever your voucher’s good for.

I decided to order one of their mixed cases – the “All American Highest Rated Wines” selection. This case “retailed” for $165, with an “Angel Price” of around $100. Still, $65 for a case of wine is a deal I’ll take. I have to give them high marks for promptness. The wine arrived within a week. Over the course of a month or so, we worked our way through the various bottles. Here’s what I thought:

Da Da Da 2011 Lodi Chardonnay – I thought this was a very nice wine, especially for the price. It’s very light bodied for a California chardonnay. I thought it was relatively refreshing flavorwise, with a restrained bit of oak. I also don’t expect a lot of mineral character from  California wine, but this sure had some. ($10, Club Price $6)

Da Da Da 2011 Lodi Merlot – Like its white cousin, the merlot is also well-constructed. This isn’t a fruit bomb by any stretch of the imagination. It gives you pretty firm, balanced tannins with ample amounts of blackberry on the palate. I found leather flavors throughout and a very dry, lasting finish. A well-balanced, not overly heavy concoction. ($10, Club Price $6)

Cockamamie 2011 Calaveras County Syrah – For a California syrah, this one’s made in a fairly lean style. Good flavors of dark fruit with a layer of graphite on the finish. Although it is relatively light in body for a syrah, it hangs in through the finish reasonably well. At least I thought it did when I opened it. I had some left over, and I remembered liking it much more the first day. When I tried it the second time, I wasn’t overly impressed. ($25, Club Price $15)

Matt Iaconis 2010 Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir – Our old chocolate Labrador, Jessie, went to obedience lessons once during her puppyhood, which turned out to be an exercise in futility. Upon “graduation,” her instructor remarked “Jessie…wants to be good.” Well, this pinot wants to be earthy. It ends up more on the smoky end of things, and it’s a decent drinking wine. It’s not out of this world as a pinot (especially considering the pinots that we’ve laid in from Oregon), but it’s certainly a nice choice for a food-friendly red that you can serve with a quality meal. We had this with bone-in chicken breasts roasted with dried red pepper and marjoram. It was a tasty meal, and the wine was a fine accompaniment. ($24. Club Price $14)

William Henry 2012 California Riesling – This wine absolutely needs some air, but once it gets a few spins in the glass and a warms a tad, the nose really changes from green apples and flint to melon and honey. The nose belies the body, which actually has very little fruit to speak of other than little bit of lemon backed with a whole lot of mineral, which follows on the finish almost to the point of being metallic. It’s certainly an *interesting* wine. On its own, I don’t know if it would be for everyone. I liked it well enough. I had the rest of the bottle with a New Orleans barbecue shrimp – and it was downright tasty. ($11. Club price $6.50).

There were two other bottles in the case, neither of which I really took notes on -- F. Stephen Millier Angel’s Reserve Viognier ($10, club price $6) and Ken Dies 2011 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($40. Club price $20). Both wines were solid but unspectacular.

So, what’s the bottom line? The “retail” prices of the wines are obviously set artificially high to make you think you’re getting a good deal if you become one of the “naked angels.” Once you’re at “angel prices,” some of the wines become very good deals. That said, the notion of escrowing $40 a month to get wines of similar quality that you could get in a good wine store doesn’t exactly appeal to me. I’m lucky to have several very good wine stores within a small radius of my domicile. If you live in a locality where extensive wine selections aren’t readily available and you want a steady supply of decent juice, Naked Wines might be a good option. Otherwise, you’re probably better off with your handy brick-and-mortar store with a wine salesperson you trust.

You can check out Naked Wines at http://www.nakedwines.com. They currently ship to AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, KS, LA, MA, ME, MI, MN, MO, NE, NV, NH, NY, NJ, NM, NC, ND, OH, OR, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WI, WV, and WY.

Naked and Peppy -- Pepi Winery

An apt description.

Another round of thanks to Stacey at Balzac for sending along a set of samples from Pepi Winery, one of the sub-labels of O’Neill Vintners – makers of Moscato Allegro, Camelot, and Tin Roof.

Pepi, taglined as “A True California Original,” makes whites only. They do a chardonnay, a pinot grigio, a sauvignon blanc, and a blend of chenin blanc & viognier. The grapes for these wines are sourced from all over California – largely from cool-climate areas in the state. According to their trade info, Pepi was one of the first wines in California to be bottled with a Stelvin closure, better known as a quality screwcap. (I am a long-time unabashed fan of Stelvined-up wines, as many of you know.)

Pepi wines are all in the $10 price range. I received a sample of each of their offerings from the 2011 vintage. How’d they work out?

Pepi 2011 Sauvignon Blanc – “Very pleasant” was underlined on my notes for this one. It kicks off with a light nose of peach blossoms. There’s a zippy acidity alongside some very friendly peach and pear flavors. The finish is quick and lemony. I’d put this in the fridge the night before and didn’t get to it when I thought I would. Make sure you let it warm up a bit if you’ve got it fridge-cold. Drunk too cold, it loses the fruit and becomes and acid ball. I found it to be nicely food-friendly as well. It held up to a honey-jalapeno glaze on some chicken breasts. Consensus was that this was a good “everything wine” – a bottle that’s stashable for almost any everyday meal or occasion.

Pepi 2011 Chardonnay –I don’t drink a lot of California chardonnay. I’m always a little nervous when I open one. California chards tend to be big oak/big butter, unless they’re marketed as “unoaked,” which means that the acidity has been cranked to the point where you might think you’ve opened lemon juice. Ol’ Pepi surprised me with its balance. The nose is straight-up honey and apples. My first impression was slightly tart apple with just a hint of oak in the background. There’s a wee bit of cream on the finish, but it’s largely more fruit with a good balance of soft oak and lemon peel. I liked this about as well as I have a California chardonnay at this price point. Went nicely with roasted chicken and sautéed veggies, as well. Solid and workable.

Pepi 2011 Pinot Grigio – A light sipper that was the least memorable of the four. It’s by far the lightest of the wines although, to its credit, it’s not as flimsy as many pinot grigios. There’s nothing overly fancy here. Mild acidity, very light nose, and basic citrus flavors. We opened this one next to some fish tacos and a mild salsa. Anything with a stronger flavor would probably run this one over. I figure it for a good picnic wine, too.

Pepi 2011 Chenin Blanc/Viognier – When my notes say a wine tastes like a fuzzy navel, ordinarily that wouldn’t be a good thing. Imagine those basic peach and citrus flavors with the sugar dialed way back, and you’ve got the basic idea of this very drinkable, surprisingly complex wine. The chenin cuts the “oily” texture often found in inexpensive viognier without killing the trademark floral fragrance, and the viognier takes the edge off what can be challenging chenin blanc acidity. All in all, I found this to be a harmonious, bold, fruity white that rattled nicely off a “hobo pack” of cod loin, a bunch of herbs, garlic, and garden tomatoes & peppers. I’d certainly pick this one up again – especially as the weather is cooling a bit.

All in all, I thought this was a solid set of nicely-priced whites well worth trying. Nice work.

Oregon

“If God made anything better, He kept it for Himself.”
-William S. Burroughs, Junky

The Sweet Partner in Crime and I talked for years about a vacation to Oregon. We’d always wanted to see Portland and we hoped to visit my cousin in Eugene. I wanted to return to Crater Lake to take the (spectacular!) boat ride that I’d adolescently skipped twenty years prior. And we wanted wine, of course.

Oregon, specifically the Willamette (rhymes with “Dammit!”) Valley, is known best for pinot noir. The area is nestled between the low Oregon Coastal Range mountains on the west and the tall Cascades on the east and stretches from the Columbia River on the north to just south of Eugene. The entire valley comprises about 3.3 million acres. The Willamette Valley’s temperate climate is quite friendly to those cool-weather loving grapes. (France’s Burgundy region is at the same north latitude, not surprisingly.)

The most common appellation you’ll see on a bottle of Oregon pinot is “Willamette Valley AVA.” AVA is WineSpeak for “American Viticultural Area” – the wine growing region. That designation means the grapes were grown within the valley. There are six sub-AVA’s within the larger Willamette Valley: Chehalem Mountains, Ribbon Ridge, Yamhill-Carlton, Eola-Amity Hills, Dundee Hills, and McMinnville. Each has distinct terroir.

Oregon’s fascinating topography, carved by glaciers, volcanic eruptions, wind, and water, contains wildly different soil types. The soils do fall into two major categories: marine sedimentary (which generally imparts an earthy complexity) and volcanic (which yields a fruity smokiness). Some vineyards have both soil types, often within a few hundred feet of each other.

The first pinot noir from Oregon was produced in the mid-1960’s, and Oregon became a major player in the market in the 1980’s.When Sideways kickstarted the California pinot boom in the mid-2000’s, Oregon pinot producers came along for the ride. Oregon pinot is very different from California pinot. In general, the terroir of Oregon produces a more subtle, lower-alcohol juice, which created a nice contrast for wine connoisseurs. Oregon pinot made a name for itself, and prices rose.

Alas, the mass market, fueled by our old friend Miles, demanded pinot. Inexpensive pinot from places like Chile and Australia, as well as some…shall we say…less-well-crafted-but-cheaper California offerings flooded the market. $10-15 pinot made in a big, fruit-forward style became common. Also, thanks to California’s maddeningly consistent (but beautiful) climate, a casual wine drinker usually can be fairly confident of what’s in the bottle. A 2010 wine from a particular producer in California will taste a lot like a 2009, which in turn will taste a lot like the 2008, and so on. Oregon’s climate has much more variation, so specific vintage plays a huge role in a wine’s flavor.

For a while, it was difficult to locate much Oregon pinot at local wine stores. California pinot ruled the roost of mid- to high-end domestic pinots, and Oregon’s low-key marketing approach (not to mention many fewer wineries) caused a pricing problem. A few major producers (Domaine Serene, Domaine Drouhin, Erath) were able to keep up – but a good number of the mid-sized and smaller producers had to make some major readjustments. As a result, very high quality Oregon pinot became available for about half what you’ll pay for a premier cru Burgundy.

Many Oregon wines really hit my palate’s sweet spot, particularly those from Eola-Amity, Yamhill-Carlton, and Ribbon Ridge. I thought many of these wines had similar flavor profiles as good Burgundy, but with an addition of the “brightness” that American wines tend to exhibit. The following were our faves for quality & price. Some of these may be difficult to find in your local wine stores, but they’re all well worth a few website clicks:

Witness Tree Vineyard (Eola-Amity) – The “witness tree” is an ancient white oak that marked the corner of the historical boundary of the property. A lovely location for our first stop -- with a couple of very solid choices. While the Willamette Valley is known best for pinot noir, there are a few whites spread around as well. Witness Tree produces a wonderful estate Viognier, which was the best bottle of that varietal I’ve ever tasted at $15. Their estate cuvee pinot noir, called “ChainSaw,” was a steal as well at $20. http://www.witnesstreevineyard.com

Witness Tree Vineyard's namesake

Cristom (Eola-Amity) – One can almost see the Cristom winery from the Witness Tree parking lot.They specialize in slightly higher-end pinot noir which was well-worth the extra few shekels. In honor of our beagle, Jessie Louise, we took home two bottles one each from their “Jessie” and “Louise” vineyards. More like $40 for these. I had a nice conversation with their winemaker, Steve Doerner, who said, “I’m the winemaker, but I have plenty of help – a few thousands of helpers in the vineyard and 10-to-the-sixth in the lees…” http://www.cristomwines.com/

Cristom Winery

Spindrift Cellars (Willamette Valley) – A cool, unpretentious little place we pulled into on the edge of an industrial section of Corvallis as we were on our way from Eugene to Dundee. We learned that “spindrift” is the name for the foam that rises from the top of a breaking wave. The star of the place for us was their rosé of pinot at $16 -- a perfect picnic wine with much more complexity and depth than you’ll see in many pinks. http://www.spindriftcellars.com/

 

Twelve Wine (Yamhill-Carlton). We first tasted this at a fantastic wine store in Eugene called Authentica. Twelve is run by a husband/wife duo – he an electrical engineer from Silicon Valley (who still works in high tech as a day job), she a high school counselor. We ran through their entire gamut at their tasting room in downtown McMinnville. (The vineyard is in Yamhill.) The quirky story of the wine’s name, their wicked cool labels, and their downright friendliness added to the experience. The estate pinot ($25) had a wonderful richness that played along especially nicely with the offerings from the gourmet chocolate shop with which they share a tasting room. Their currently-sold out reserve, called “144” (12-squared, get it?) was exceptional. http://twelvewine.com/
 

Patricia Green Cellars (Ribbon Ridge) – Patricia Green’s tastings are appointment only -- so we headed there semi-private late-morning tasting with eight other folks. We sampled 12 different wines from across three vintages, and two “futures” barrel tastings. The winemaker, Jim Anderson, sources grapes from many Willamette sub-AVAs, so we had an exceptionally educational experience. We experienced side-by-side the real differences between sedimentary and volcanic soil, as well as the wide variation that exists between vintages. We especially liked their “sedimentary” series, particularly the Etzel Block ($60), Ana Vineyard ($45), and their straight Estate ($30). They're also one of the few producers of sauvignon blanc ($20) in the Valley. Highly recommended on all counts. And we needed carbs for lunch immediately afterwards. http://www.patriciagreencellars.com/

Damage done at the Patricia Green Cellars tasting

Libra Wines (Yamhill-Carlton) – I’m writing a separate column on our experiences at Libra – a true vacation highlight. I’ll just say for now that Libra’s 2010 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir at $25 knocked the pants off almost anything else we tasted on the trip. Just try. It’s kickass. http://librawines.com/

If you decide to take a wine tasting tour around the Willamette Valley and you want to really pamper yourself, consider staying at the Le Puy Inn in Newberg. (http://lepuy-inn.com) Lea and Andy will take good care of you. Though there a number of top-notch restaurants in the area, make sure you have a meal at Tina’s (http://www.tinasdundee.com/), a favorite of Valley locals in Dundee. You’ll be glad you did.

Memorial Day shindigs

If  you're casting about for things to check out over the upcoming long weekend, a couple of the local wineries we've featured here before are having events. Both of these are about an hour's drive (and a very pretty one at that) east of Cincinnati.

Kinkead Ridge Vineyard & Winery will be having their traditional Memorial Day release of their 2011 white wines. They're going to be releasing:

• 2011 Kinkead Ridge Viognier/Roussanne. $15.99
• 2011 Kinkead Ridge White Revelation. $13.99
• 2011 Kinkead Ridge Riesling. $11.99
• 2011 River Village Cellars Traminette. Residual sugar 1.9% Production. $9.99.

The winery will be open for tasting on May 26 & 28 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day They will also be showing these whites on June 7 at the Cincinnati Art Museum's "A Taste of Duveneck." Kinkead Ridge is located in Ripley, OH.

La Vigna Estate Winery will be having their 2nd Annual La Vigna Food and Wine Festival on May 26 & 28 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day. They're releasing their 2011 Proprietary White, made from 100% Petit Manseng.

The festival will feature Fireside Pizza made to order, complimentary goat cheeses from JZN Goat Farm, vegetables and herbs for purchase from Organic Farm at Bear Creek in Clermont County, and live music from "Rockin'" George LaVigne.  La Vigna is about a mile north of Higginsport, OH.

Previous Naked Vine coverage of these wineries can be found here and here.

A Chill in the Air, Some Whites for your Glass

I had a couple of requests after the last column (“A Chill in the Air, some Reds for your Glass") for a companion piece on cool-weather whites. As I ease into fall, I tend to think about white wines less. I don’t usually get a craving for a big glass of pinot grigio on a day where the wind is whipping the heat from my bones, but I can’t lose sight of them altogether. Dinner parties, social events, or perhaps the occasional 80 degree day in December might call for whites, albeit slightly heavier ones. Here are a few that you might want to stash away:

Yalumba 2010 Viognier – I haven’t had a lot of luck with inexpensive Viognier lately. Viognier’s a great blustery-weather white. It’s probably got my favorite white wine aromatics, but the inexpensive ones can taste a little bit “oily” and have an alkaline aftertaste. Not pleasant in my opinion and not my usual cup of tea. Still, since it had been a while and after happening along a few offerings from South Australia, I thought I’d give the grape another whirl. I was pleasantly surprised to find this one. The Yalumba (great name, too – Aboriginal Australian for “all the land around”) has plenty of peach and floral scents on the nose, followed up by a nicely balanced peach flavor. It’s “weighty without being heavy,” if that makes sense. Viognier is a great choice with a traditional turkey meal and it also works well with spicy stuff. As a bit of a warning, this is a high-alcohol white. It clocks in at 14.5%, which is around cabernet sauvignon level. Not to worry, the alcohol is masked with a little residual sweetness. Swirl well and approach gently. $9.

Villa Maria 2008 Marlborough Riesling – Staying with the Down Under selections, we pop “next door” to New Zealand for this extremely food-friendly Riesling. I found it to be a intriguing mix of some of my favorite “traditional” Riesling styles. My best description would be “dropping a hunk of pineapple into a glass of Alsace Riesling.” Alsace Rieslings are almost always bone dry and full of mineral flavors, while the pineapple reminds me of Pacific Northwest dry Riesling. Trust me – for some reason it works. The Villa Maria has a lovely tropical-fruit-and-flowers nose. I picked up lots of minerality at first taste, blended with the aforementioned pineapple. The burst of fruit quickly yields to dryness and flint on the finish. If you enjoy “drinking rocks” as I do, you’ll love this wine. At around $13, this is a nice alternative to more expensive Alsatian offerings.

Adler Fels “Kitchen Sink” (NV) California White Table Wine – I’m honestly not sure why I picked this wine up. I was browsing the California white section for a sauvignon blanc. Since I’d used “everything but the kitchen sink” in a work context that day, the faucet on the label caught my eye. I took that as a sign. I read the back label and thought, “Huh…Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, and Gewurztraminer. That should be fun.” I thought it might have a little more oomph than a sauvignon blanc for the meal I was planning, and I wasn’t disappointed. Even though it’s comprised of over one-third California chardonnay, it’s still a fruity, acidic white. My first taste yielded lemons and tangerines. The finish is surprisingly crisp even with its nice weight. I thought it was very pleasant on both palate and pocketbook for around 10 bucks. What was the meal? Orecchiette pasta with chickpeas, greens, and grilled calamari (sounds weird, tastes nummy). Flavors from all directions made friends in this pairing. I would imagine it would stand up to cream sauces as well.

Gruet (NV) Blanc de Noirs – I would be remiss in putting together a whites column without throwing in a sparkler. One of the primary differences I find between French sparkling wines and other sparklers like cava is the “creamy” flavor that accompanies the fruit and the bubbles in the French offerings. There’s usually also a pleasant, somewhat “yeasty” aroma in the bouquet that reminds me a little of freshly baked bread. When I got a sip of this little number from New Mexico, I thought it was about as French-tasting as any inexpensive sparkling wine I’ve sampled. I found berries and cream on the tongue with good “mousse” (WineSpeak for “bubble strength and feel). The finish is toasty and pleasant. We cracked this as an aperitif for a recent dinner party for our neighbors (including Dinner Club Jeff) and it got raves. Around $12-13 and well worth it.

The Twisted V

First off, Happy Birthday to my sister Annie...

A few months ago, I took a look at Viognier, which I find to be one of the more interesting white wine varietals.

Viognier is a notoriously tough grape to grow. One theory about the name of the grape is that because of low yields and susceptibility to mildew, "Viognier" is actually a modification of the Latin "via Gehennae" -- which means "road to hell." Modern winemaking techniques have improved the production of the varietal, but it's still relatively low on the global production totem pole. Viognier is beginning to be grown more widely -- the U.S., Argentina, and Australia being the largest producers outside of France. Since the grape's yield is low, high quality Viognier (and thus blends containing it) tend to be a little more expensive.

Viognier is most well knows as a component in many of France's Rhone wines. In the northern Rhone, Viognier is largely grown as a single varietal or is used as a stabilizing agent for the color in Northern Rhone reds, which are almost always Syrah dominant. In the southern Rhone, Viognier is almost exclusively used as a blending grape in whites from there, usually as a complement to grapes such as Roussane, Marsanne, Clairette, and Grenache Blanc. For instance, the Domaine Mirelle & Vincent 2007 Cotes-du-Rhone ($13-15) is made all of the above except the Grenache -- and contains about 10% Viognier. It's a very well-balanced, minerally white with an interesting earthy flavor that makes it a nice pairing with any kind of roasted veggies or just to enjoy.

In the previous Viognier column, I focused on tasting single varietal Viognier. Honestly, I'm not as much of a fan of "pure" Viognier as I am other varietals (although if I started regularly drinking Condrieu, a high end northern Rhone Viognier, I might change my mind...). I think it's a great companion grape. When properly blended, Viognier can contribute to the creation of some really interesting wines.

At least for right now, the preponderance of these Viognier heavy blends seem to come out of Australia. The Ozzies love their blends, and they're also best known worldwide for Shiraz. It would logically follow that they'd try to experiment with the synergy that the French discovered. The blend is usually only with one other grape -- rather than the multi-grape mishmashes in the Rhone.

When blended, Viognier tends to both tone down the juiciness of the traditional fruit bomb that can be Australian Shiraz. The intensely aromatic nature of Viognier also adds a forward floral nose of its own and deepens many of the existing flavors and scents of the red. It also adds a little acidity to the finish to balance the tannins. A couple of examples I've had lately are the Woop Woop "The Black Chook" 2006 Shiraz/Viognier  ($15-18) and the d'Arenberg 2006 "The Laughing Magpie" Shiraz/Viognier ($20-25).

The Black Chook ("Chook" is Australian for "chicken") is a big, full flavored wine that's excellent for drinking on its own some evening when you want a hearty red. It's fruit-forward and powerful without being cloyingly pop-tartish. There's a really interesting smoky flavor to it that makes it line up almost perfectly with dark chocolate. The Laughing Magpie is a little more nuanced, although it's certainly bold like the shiraz-dominant blend that it is. It's got a perfumey nose from the Viognier with a strong scent of blooming lilacs (which I personally love).  There are flavors of plums and nectarines heading off in every drirection with a little bit of a chalky note. Finish is only a little fruity, but very long with soft tannin and a slight acidity that continues for well over a minute. I had this with marinated, grilled lamb chops and wilted spinach. With the lamb, the flavors brought out the herbs in the marinade I was using -- especially the rosemary and thyme. The minerally tone also let it work with the spinach, which can ordinarily be a real wine killer.

On the white side of the fence, staying with our friends at d'Arenberg, I had their 2008 "The Hermit Crab" Adelaide Viognier/Marsanne. (Don't you love the names of Australian wines?) The Hermit Crab, so named because this is similar to the dominant blend in white Hermitage, wasn't as fragrant as I initially expected. Viognier and Marsanne are aromatic varietals, but their combination here is light, floral, and a little citrusy. It's fruitier than I expected as well with lots of apricot and ginger. It's not as dry as a lot of straight Viogniers, finishing up with a refreshing hint of sweet and some solid acidity. In general, flavorful, tasty, and great to drink on its own. It would also be a winner with some good spicy foods. $15.

In the US, you'll typically see Viognier as a single varietal, although the "Rhone Rangers," a group of winemakers largely from the Central Coast region of California who focus on Rhone varietals, have also done some experiments with red blends that include Viognier. They tend to be fairly pricey, but when done well, they're absolutely dynamite. For instance, the Ridge 2005 Lytton Ridge Syrah fits the bill. It's around 80% syrah, but the 20% of makes this a fascinating blend. The nose is wonderful. The big, plummy scents are there as you'd expect, but so is an appley note along with the traditional Viognier floweriness. The body is medium on its face, but I think the viognier gives the wine length without it simply coating the inside of your mouth. The finish is full, tannic, and extremely tasty. It's around $28, but it's a really nice, showy wine if you need to impress.
 

Maryhill Winery

When I attended the Cincinnati International Wine Festival, I noted that Maryhill Wineries in Goldendale, Washington, was one of the labels with which I was the most intrigued. While my palate was somewhat blunted by the cacophony of flavors that I'd been working with that day, I found myself really drawn to Maryhill. They were priced right, seemed tasty and straightforward, and were easy to quaff.

They grow a broad variety of grapes, which can sometimes give pause, but they manage to keep the quality fairly consistent. Most of their wines are in the $10-20 range, which makes them quite attractive. Since the festival, Maryhill's done pretty well for itself. They were recently named the 2009 Washington Winery of the Year by Wine Press Northwest. Their production has expanded greatly over the last few years, and their wines are becoming much more available.

I was understandably pleased when a case and a half of the wine showed up on our doorstep to review. The Sweet Partner in Crime and I were up to the challenge, so over the period of a few weeks, we cobbled together some notes:

Maryhill Winery 2006 Cabernet Franc -- Because of a story too long to relate here that involved a Sangiovese that was...um..."missing" from our cellar, a rosé that ended up being too sweet, and a football game we needed to watch -- I ended up popping this wine on a night when we were having a more "Italian Friendly" meal. (I also ended up pulling a little trickeration on the SPinC...) This is definitely a more fruit-forward, "New World" Cab Franc. A plummy, slightly minty nose with a full mouthfeel. The flavor is quite fruity, with a nice blueberry and smoke undertone. I might have mistaken it for a Cabernet Sauvignon, except the tannins were much softer and the acidity level considerably higher. The finish is acidic and a bit smoky. We had a grilled salmon with roasted tomatoes and tomato risotto for dinner that evening. The pairing worked really well. The grilled flavor of the fish accentuated the smoke behind the fruit in the wine. The acidity tamed the oil in the fish, and the tomatoes didn't overwhelm it, as they could have. I opened another bottle of this with friends Danny and Ryan. We got to this one after a couple of other bottles and some tastes of old scotch. Surprisingly, the fruit still made it to our scorched tongues. ($18)

Maryhill Winery 2008 Rose of Sangiovese -- For folks who like slightly sweet rosés, this will be a favorite. I'd be interested to know how this wine came about. It's somewhat heavy in the mouth for a rosé, since it's got a fair amount of residual sugar. There's enough acidity to keep it from becoming cloyingly sweet, but I can't say that it was my favorite. It's actually the rosé I mentioned in the Cab Franc writeup. I think it would have been better if it were either made in a fruitier style or allowed to dry out a bit more. The sweetness made it neither fish nor fowl. (Although it might be reasonably tasty with either -- $14.)

Maryhill Winery 2007 Pinot Gris -- "Simple and uncomplicated" is about as apt a description as you'll find for this wine. It's a straightforward, summery wine. The nose is extremely light and lemony. The flavor is much like the bouquet, light and citrusy with some pear and lemon flavors. The finish is quick and acidic, with a bit of a lingering astringency -- almost like a little bit of oak crept through -- but not enough to really be a strong part of the flavor. There's also a little peppery hint as well. It's a decent enough wine. Not my favorite pinot gris, but certainly one that works well enough on a hot day to relax with. ($15)

Maryhill Winery 2006 Zinfandel -- We first tried this as a "second bottle" of the evening. We'd had dinner and had a bottle of pinot noir with it. We were having post-meal chocolate, and the SPinC asked, "Do we have anything that's good with chocolate?" After surveying the scene, I cracked this open. After it opened up a bit -- the nose is big and bold with blueberries and bubblegum. The palate is uncomplicated, but nicely jammy with more blueberry and raspberry flavors. This slides smoothly into a finish with balanced tannins and great flavors of dark chocolate and coffee. And yes, it went remarkably well with dark chocolate and brownies. We had to try both with it...you know, for science's sake. ($22)

Maryhill Winery 2008 Viognier -- We were putting together a salad of our garden veggies, some grilled chicken, and a balsamic vinaigrette and hadn't opened a wine for it yet. I took a shot in the dark here, and it paid off. The nose of this wine is less floral than many viogniers, nosing more of light wood and minerals than of flowers. The flavor is a medium bodied mix of pear and pineapple with a touch of the traditional viognier oiliness. Vanilla dominated the finish. Quite tasty. The salad had a number of strong flavors -- citrus, smoke from the grilled chicken, fresh lemon basil, earth from mushrooms, and this wine stood right up next to it all. It didn't overwhelm the salad's flavors, but it didn't turn either insipid or astringent. A great wine to pair with the salad. The longer the wine sat, the more pronounced the smokiness and vanilla became. I'd really consider letting this sit open for a half hour before diving in. We confirmed the pair's quality at the end when the SPinC reached for the bottle and said, "Hey...well...this sure didn't last long...." One of the highlights and a steal at $15.

Maryhill Winery 2006 Proprietor's Reserve Malbec -- We cracked this on a night where we'd both had a long week and wanted to put together a nice meal. We'd watched a few episodes of some old Julia Child shows from Netflix and we decided to try our hand at some green beans and stuffed mushrooms. For a main course, we marinated up a London broil in some vinaigrette and lime juice and tossed it on the grill. Grilled food & Malbec. We figured we couldn't lose. Nice nose of vanilla and dark fruit. I might have mistaken it for a good Merlot. Nice smooth, balanced fruit on the palate that slides easily towards a finish full of vanilla, pepper, and coffee. It's a very balanced Malbec without some of the really harsh tannins that some of them can have. It's also not quite as spicy, so if that's what you're focusing on, that's probably not going to ring a bell for you. But if you're looking for more of a balanced flavor, it's nice. I get the sense, also, that this is somewhat of an "experimental," limited production wine. It's about $30, so I might wait a couple of years on this one, unless you want to lay it up for a few years, which could prove interesting.

Maryhill Winery 2006 Syrah -- I'm very glad we had a spare bottle of this one from the shipment. We opened the first one and it drank easily enough that we went through the whole thing without writing a note! Second time through, we had it with what started as fajitas and turned into a "lots of beef, peppers, garlic and onions over black beans" meal. Yeah, so it might not have been the "perfect pairing," but it worked nonetheless. Really nice nose on this wine -- plenty of vanilla and soft wood scents. It's medium-bodied for a syrah, slightly jammy -- good blackberry flavor and some pepperiness. Good, easy finish with some lasting clove and coffee flavors. We made the meal with more of a smoky heat than a spicy one (Tabasco Chipotle sauce is great stuff...), and the peppery notes complemented those spices nicely. Again, dangerously easy to drink, but we held off a little for chocolate, and we were glad we did. ($20)

Maryhill Winery 2006 "Winemaker's Red" -- The Maryhill "Bordeaux Blend with a twist" is their most popular wine. It's a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot, with the "twist" being some Syrah thrown in for good measure. It's got an interestingly plummy, funky nose -- very earthy for a wine from the Northwest. Like a Bordeaux, it's lighter on the palate than many of the California meritages, so they've got the body right. The finish is where the wine was a tad disappointing. Initially, the finish seemed a little watery, smoky and clipped. After some serious swirling (and drinking about half a glass), some coffee notes come forth and the balance improves. Not the most complicated wine, but very drinkable. I wonder what it would be like with another year in bottle. A decent value at $14.

Maryhill Winery 2006 Proprietor's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon -- The few cabs that I've had from the Pacific Northwest have tended to be mellow, "drink me now" concoctions. The cooler climate tends to make more subtle wines. Maryhill's Cab is certainly subtle, but it carries a little muscle with it. It's not as powerful as many of the California versions, but it is a full wine just the same. The nose simply wasn't there at first, but after an hour of breathing and quite a bit of swirling, I got rewarded with a very smooth, licorice and berry nose. The palate is fruity once the wine opens. At first, it's a wall of tannin, but the fruit does emerge. Once it does, lots of dark fruit and coffee. The finish is long and a bit heavy on the tannin. With the steak we had for dinner, though, that tannin was a bonus -- allowing the wine's fruit to show up and balance the meat, the mushrooms, and even the wilted spinach. With the mandatory chocolate and cabernet pairing, we were a bit underwhelmed. It was good -- but the flavors didn't quite marry. The reserve is $36. (Their "normal" cab is $20.) Would be a good one to grab a few bottles of and stick in the cellar for 3-4 years. Once the tannins have calmed, this'll be a rock star.

To sum up, with the exception of the pinot gris, I'd recommend most of these. (Warm weather whites like pinot gris generally don't do as well in the Northwest, in my experience.) The price is right for most of them and they've all got some depth for wines at these price points. If you can find these in your local store, give them a go.