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Grape 25: Merlot

April 2, 2011 in merlot, red, red wine, usa | 20 comments

Merlot Coaster these last few years
Merlot brings out emotion in collective conscience like the latest scandalous pop star (Lady Gaga meat collection anyone?). “Love it” screamed the teenie boppers when it’s smooth, fruity taste first hit the international market, throwing California into a tizzy over whether Cabernet still reigned supreme (spoiler alert: it does). “Hate it” screamed the slightly more matured cognescenti in a moment that happened to coincide with the release of a certain Sideways movie seven years ago that dropped Merlot into the bargain bin. And now, quietly, without much fuss or notice, Merlot is once again regaining a certain “F.U.” cachet.

Merlot, it’s back to the starting rotation
Merlot is back to the big leagues and its time in Triple A has done it well. People who know about wines tell me the best values for American wines are in Merlot. People have hated on it so much, it’s become trendy to hate the haters. Is it too much to call Merlot the PBR of wine? Is PBR even the PBR of beer anymore?

Regardless, Merlot is headed back to its rightful place on the team. Sure, Merlot won’t be the Roy Halladay that will lead the Mets to win on opening day – that just doesn’t happen in Queens. But Merlot is back on the starting rotation, sandwiched in between Cab, Shiraz and Pinot.

Taste
Black fruit fruit with some plum marching in next. Nothing too heavy from the tannins but some weight and smoke that makes it seem deeper than it is. Pizza, movie and this wine.

Detail Up!
Bogle Vineyards, California – 2009 Merlot

Random Googles
* Washington, Long Island and Hawke’s Bay – those are the 3 locations to find great value.
* Merlot – etymologists trace it to French for “blackbird,” as in 4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie. Never understood how that song didn’t become the stoner mantra.
* In Bordeaux, more Merlot is planted than Cab but somehow Merlot manages to stay in the shadow. Ask Zeno to explain that one.

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Grape 24: Tinta Negra Mole

March 30, 2011 in dessert wine, madeira, portugal, red, red wine, tinta negra, tinta negra mole | 89 comments

Mocked Madeira
Madeira is a little known grape that still finds ways to be snotty and dislike even lesser known grapes. Tinta Negra Mole gets the designation of belittled wine reviled by little known wine. See, it’s a grape grown on Madeira, gets called Madeira in any wine shop, but somehow the Madeira wine lovers (all 3 of them) scoff at Tinta Negra Mole. It’s a shame too since there’s some incredible value to be found in Tinta Negra Mole – say the words out loud: “Tinta. Negra. Mole.” It sounds like a Mexican dessert from Oaxaca.

Rodney Dangerfield in Madeira
Tinta Negra Mole (mmmm… dessert) is a grape with little respect and (whoo hoo!) great value. They grow it on Madeira (the island), nominally in Portugal but really kinda like the Atlantic Madagascar, but don’t respect it on Madeira. Or anywhere. It’s the pariah grape of the Madeira grapes. Perhaps rightfully so since it will never soar to age for decades like many of the other “noble” grapes. Still, Tinta Negra Mole is now a “noble” grape and with that comes maidens, crowns and a modicum of respect.

Red Discrimination
Tinta Negra Mole is Madeira’s most planted grape and is treated like the Mission grape in California (dismissed) or the Airen grape in Spain (forgotten). Really though, it’s because Tinta Negra Mole isn’t at home on Madeira. It’s a red grape on a white island, and Madeira discriminates against red grapes. White grapes are part of the “system,” the Malmsey, Bual, Verdelho, Sercial system. Red grapes just don’t have a place.

Not a Marie Antoinette
Tinta Negra Mole though, can produce fine wines, perhaps not of the Marie Antoinette variety but certainly of the “WOW – what IS this variety???” So don’t tell people, it’s best they don’t know. 5 years of aging, some red blood tucked in with the white of the island grapes, and WOW – you have yourself a value wine that is basically indestructible. It is a Madeira after all, and if there’s a better wine, a more indestructible wine invented on earth, you haven’t brought it to my dining table.

Taste
Sweet nose, coffee taste, alcoholic finish with slight raisin. For $20, buy it at this place, the place that provided the photo above. It’s all Tinta Negra Mole.

Detail Up!
Broadbent Madeira, 5 year reserve – Tinta Negra Mole

Random Googles
* Tinta Negra Mole is a cross between a Grenache and a Pinot Noir – do people really dislike that?
* This Swedish guy runs a blog devoted to Madeira (mad respect!) and seems to think Tinta Negra Mole gets tossed to the chickens. Oh, to be those chickens.
* 15% is as close to labeled Madeira as Tinta Negra Mole gets. Labels: sometimes worth it, sometimes just Ralph Lauren.

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Grape 3 (again): Cencibel

March 12, 2011 in red, red wine, spain | 11 comments

Trickery!
This grape tricked me. It shouted out from the menu and when it shouted, it shouted “New Grape!” Unfortunately, Cencibel is a grape that is already reviewed in a prior post (see if you can guess by the time the hyperlink shows up below).

Man of La Mancha
Coming from Spain, and from La Mancha, this grape promised to be as new as Don Quixote breaking into the chivalric romance genre in 1605 and 1615 (apparently, it’s two volumes). Turns out, this grape is as known as food to the mouth of Quixote’s erstwhile and gluttonous companion, Sancho Panza. Despite the tantalizing newness promised by the word “Cencibel” and its subsequent unmasking as another Spanish grape, it’s hard to dislike this Cencibel wine.

Here’s the joint description of the grape based on the hemming-and-hawing between my sister and I as we sat at the bar in pre-dinner, not-yet-hungry expectation.

Detail Up!
Cencibel from La Mancha – 2007 Pago Florentino Vino de Pago (h/t for the image too)
Light tannins, thinner throughout, some blueberry, bit sweet

Google Clues
* This grape is typical of Spain and might be its most popular grape, particularly in Rioja
* New world and old world makers now flock to this wine that means “little early one” due to the early harvest
* Cencibel also goes by the name “Temp…..“

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Grape 18: Lambrusco

March 7, 2011 in bubbly, italy, lambrusco, red, red wine, wine | 14 comments

Sparkling Red Wine
Lambrusco is a wine that I should like but don’t. It’s red, it’s bubbly and it’s just different. It’s the original red bubbly. Australia has started churning out full-on bubbly red in recent years (as opposed to the Italian semi-bubbly frizzante of Lambrusco), but finding a bubbly red is still very rare. Hence, the appeal of wine shops recommended Lambrusco even when it’s bad.

Styles, according to me
Lambrusco comes in two styles – sickly sweet and drinkable – both of which have some basic characteristics. They’re red wine served chilled, slightly bubbly in that frizzante Italian way, and the alcohol’s on the lighter side (8-11%). Every Lambrusco I’d had until yesterday fit into that mawkish first category of sickly sweet, where the wine was often mistaken for a fizzy liquid lollipop. Apparently, this style caught on during the 1970s, right at the time of the Bee Gees and disco. Clearly a lost decade.

The second style – drinkable – is becoming more popular and includes yesterday’s wine above. Dry, still fruity (but not egotistically so) and actually drinkable, it’s a wine for cold cuts, movie pizza and rainy Sunday afternoons. Thanks to its low alcohol content, any scintillating film critiques you share with your rainy-day couch companion will be understood in real-time.

Grape
Lambrusco is a grape and not a grape. It’s the von Trapp family of wine. There’s a whole lot of individuals but nobody outside the family can distinguish very well between all those kids in the middle so they go by the collective “von Trapp” name. Same thing for Lambrusco. Ampelographers (wiki word of the day) know of at least 60 varieties of Lambrusco and yet “Lambrusco” is what you’ll find on the bottle.

Italy has Lambrusco stamped all over its boot, and this applies historically as well as geographically. Cato the Elder enjoyed this wine back in the Roman days and (despite his puissant name) he wasn’t the first. The Etruscans were drinking Lambrusco long before Romulus found his wolf teat and started building all roads to Rome.

Taste of Lambrusco
Pretty dry but still good middle-of-the-road fruit (strawberry?), enough fizz, and a slightly bitter finish. Better than any Lambrusco I’ve had (low benchmark) and actually worth having in the fridge.

Detail Up!
2009 Francesco Vezzelli Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro Rive Dei Ciliegi

Google Randoms
* Sickly Sweet Lambrusco Wine provided by Riunite – “top of the list of the 25 most influential italian wines of the last 25 years”
* Lambrusco’s 6 principal von Trapp family members discussed by WSJ’s Lettie Teague
* Balsamic Vinegar comes from the same town as the Lambrusco stronghold in Emilia-Romagna.

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Grapes 8, 9: Zweigelt and Blaufrankisch

February 3, 2011 in austria, blaufrankisch, red, red wine, wine, zweigelt | 13 comments

This wine bottle from Austria confuses me. I don’t speak Austrian so that doesn’t help. And even in Austria they don’t speak Austrian, so we’re really at a loss. Anyway, this wine has two grapes (50/50), so there’s no way to know to distinguish one grape from another. Both are getting mentioned in this post.

The wine’s labeled as a Zweigelt Cuvee, and cuvee is French for “we have no idea what’s in the bottle.” Zweigelt though is a grape, which the Austrians shorten to “Blauer Zweigelt.” It’s easier to pronounce that way. In fact, there was a Mr. Zweigelt who developed the grape and then blogged about it in autobiographical book form (anyone know the title?). He lived to the ripe old age of 76 and developed other grapes in his secret wine lair. Clearly though, Zweigelt is his most famous concotion.

Zweigelt

Zweigelt is Austria’s red pride and joy, similar to American Zinfandels and the Chinese flag. More acres of Zweigelt are under production in Austria than any other grape, and this particular bottle came from Niederosterreich (Austrian for “our biggest wine region”).

Blaufrankisch

The other grape doesn’t have the fame of Dr. Zweigelt to back it up so even at 50% it’s getting the short end of the vine. Still, it’s all kinds of interesting in its own obscure way. Blaufrankisch means “blue” the same way that Eiffel 65 meant blue in the early 2000s. East Europe loves blue, not just for the techno hit (which it does) but for this grape. Czechs, Slovaks and Slovenes adore this wine so keep that in mind for your next Slovene dinner date. You can call it Lemberger if that’s easier to pronounce but remember it’s not a cheese. It’s Eastern Europe’s techno grape.

Taste

As for how the wine tasted, it was pretty fruity and light. Red and fruity with some darker flavor elements but in a really light on the mouth way. Kinda like a chocolate covered cherry without any calories but all the taste where the cherry keeps the other flavors in check. Also of note is the fact that the bottle comes in 1L only. Better than your mother’s 750ml and 25% more buxom. Yes, buxom.

Detail Up!
Artner Zweigelt Cuvee Landwein trocken Osterreich Abfuller (not really sure what all those words mean) – thanks for the photo Greene Grape guys

Random Googles
* “Bull’s Blood” is an actual name of a famous Hungarian wine. Kinda awesome. Also, it has Blaufrankisch in it.
* Zweigelt is popular in titles among wine bloggers. Something about that A-Z where Zweigelt is the kid that always got called last by his teacher.
* Dr. Vino thinks that Blaufrankisch is the best red you’ve never heard of. Little does he know that you know.

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