Wine

The rules as I see them for this list. Consistently excellent wine from year to year. If you are trapped in Cleveland as a storm is bearing down and all the Costco has is the '02 Roilette Cuvee Tardive, you snatch that up because it is on this list. Or at an art opening in NYC and they are pouring '13 Yellowtail Verdelho and '09 Lapalu Broulliy Croix de Rameaux, you ask for a glass of the Beaujolais after consulting this list. And on. And on. And on. Without further ado . . .Clos de la Roilette Fleurie Cuvee Tardive - For me, as my cellar can attest to, there is no more consistently delicious and over-performing wine in Beaujolais. Dirt cheap for what is in the bottle with the capability to age for 10-20 years (maybe more depending on vintage) and just so good. I had a '99 that was like a perfectly mature Cote-Rotie. Even in difficult vintages like 2004 and 2006 and 2008 the Tardive rises to the top. It is also made in Mags and 3 Liters which is always nice for inexpensive ageable wines. Texture, deep fruit, classic Fleurie floral aromas and an amazing structure all make this wine a winner. The current vintage, the 2011, can be had for between $22-$30 a bottle. Damn, what a deal.Jean-Claude Lapalu Brouilly "La Croix Des Rameaux" - The style of Lapalu wines can be polarizing but I am glad I am not the one who is polarized. I have always loved these wines despite the fact they are a bit hard to get. The wine that is the star of the show has always been the Croix Rameaux. People often call Lapalu's style "Beaujolais meets Priorat." You would think I be hating on these wines but no, that is not the case. I love them. Big, brawny as Brouilly should be with many layers of fruit and dirt along with exceptional structure. The alcohols can run over 13-13.5 but they never are out of balance and are exceptionally pure. And never hot. Even in '09 when alcohol levels ran particularly high the wines still smoked. The 2010's are my favorite vintage of Lapalu so far. The current vintage can be had for between $27-$35.Marcel Lapierre Morgon - Not much needs to be said. I have had over 20 vintages and this might be the most consistent wine made in Beaujolais in the Chauvet style. So clean, so refreshing, so pure, so ageable and always priced fair. Who doesn't love this? With excellent availability and multiple formats available this is about everyone's go to wine that I know. Can be serve chilled to. And please age these. I still have 2002 and 2005 in storage and '99 in 2007 was stunning. Domaine de Vissoux (Chermette) Moulin A Vent "La Trois Roches" - I love all their wines and it was really hard to choose one but I had to choose this as this was the first one that really moved me and always will remain clos to my heart. Big, brawny with the sappiest dark toned fruit you can imagine all wrapped in a shroud of minerality and dark inner earth flavors. After aeration this wine is all about the four greatest things in Beaujolais, for me, at least. Stanky over the top nose with major nuance, a flood of fruit, serious power and wonderful finesse. This has it all. Never had a bad Trois Roches before and don't plan to as they never make bad wine. The current vintage can be had for between $21-$30. What a deal.Clos de Mez Morgon - Alert Alert! This is my winery. Yes I import Marie-Elodie's wines. For $19.00 there is not a better deal in Beaujoais. Her style is taking it back to the old school. This is about as Burgundian as Beaujolais gets. Big, sinewy, beefy Morgon with so much flavor concentration and purity it need a day just to become civilized. Then it becomes a bit more grapey like a normal Morgon. Exceptional length, richness and structure that will enable long aging. 20+ years based on my tasting experience. These wines are the next superstar in Beaujolais.Jean-Paul Brun Cote de Brouilly - I love pretty much all the Beaujolais Jean-Paul Brun makes so this was a very tough decision. This wine is rough and rugged. So dark. Almost evil in its pe

For our tastes, Cono Sur’s whites have a well-established track record for being balanced and enjoyable, but, with the exception of the Pinot Noir program, the reds are rather less satisfying. I’ll let my tasting notes tell the rest of the story. 2012 Cono Sur Bicicleta Chardonnay Valle Central, 13.3% alc., $12: Clean, medium color; a note of lime adds zest to the apple and pear personality. Full bodied, rich and ripe, with good acidity and length. Does everything you could ask from a $12 Chilean Chardonnay. Find this wine 2012 Cono Sur Bicicleta Sauvignon Blanc Valle Central, 12.9% alc., $12: Clean medium color, and correct varietal character, with grapefruit and green apple flavors and aromas underscored with subtle minerality. Medium bodied, with good acids and length, this continues to be an appealing alternative to similarly priced Sauvignons from New Zealand and elsewhere. Find this wine 2012 Cono Sur Bicicleta Viogner Colchagua, 13.7% alc., $12: Clean, medium color, with a nice nose of apple and pear accented with floral overtones; flavors echo and expand, with a note of lime, nice minerality and zesty acidity. Rich, round, fairly ripe and delivering plenty of depth of flavor on a medium-full-to-full bodied frame. A pleasure to drink, now and over the next few years. Find this wine 2011 Cono Sur Bicicleta Carmenere Colchagua, 13% alc., $12: Deep, dark color; hints of balsa and earth over deep dark black fruit on the nose. More balsa on the palate, with a solid base of black currant and blackberry, shaded with some toast and coffee. Full bodied and good structure here, but if it’s not as over-oaked and manipulated as some of Cono Sur’s reds have been in the past, it still shows enough of those detractions to make me decline a second glass. Too bad; seems like they had good fruit to work with and mucked it up with “wine making.” Find this wine 2012 Cono Sur Organic Chardonnay San Antonio Valley, 13.2% alc., $14: Clean, medium color; straightforward apple and pear flavors and aromas, ripe, but not excessively so. Full bodied and well balanced, with ample acidity to keep everything moving along nicely. If I prefer a more mineral-driven style of Chardonnay, this is still quite enjoyable for what it is. Find this wine 2012 Cono Sur Organic Sauvignon Blanc San Antonio Valley, 13% alc., $14: Clean medium color, and like the Bicicleta, there’s no mistaking this for any other variety; it screams Sauvignon Blanc. More in the citrus/grapefruit spectrum and less green apple than Bicicleta, with a certain pungency to it, and some nice minerality. Has a slightly sour quality that almost reminds me of a farmhouse ale in that particular sense, but that’s not meant as a negative. Medium bodied and very zippy, with good length. Shows a little more of the aggressive side of Sauvignon, and while I like to support “Organic” whenever I can, Bicicleta seems to be the better of these two, if only by a little. Still, it’s a solid effort, and I gladly poured a second glass, just to make sure… Find this wine 2011 Cono Sur Organic Cabernet Sauvignon Carmenere Colchagua, 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Carmenere, 13.5% alc., $14: This shows clean, dark color, and while it’s less spoofy than the Bicicleta Carmenere, it still shows more of that balsa than I care for. Actually, I don’t care for any of that balsa at all; as with too many Cono Sur reds, it mars what seems to have been good, tasty fruit to begin with. There’s a nice core of full bodied black currant and berry fruit, but, perhaps it’s the 70% of whatever the blend actually is that spent time in French oak barrels, or maybe they didn’t mention oak chips or staves used in the winemaking process. To be fair, I’m guessing that wine drinkers with so-called “New World palates” will like this just fine, and while I find it tolerable, I’d look elsewhere for a good $14 red. Find this win

If you’ve ever visited a state-run wine shop in Pennsylvania, or had a tasting room employee bust out a huge 3-ring binder when you asked if you could ship wine to your aunt in Michigan, then you’ve likely experienced some of the anti-consumer regulations plaguing the wine, beer, and spirits industries. Even asking your favorite winemaker to sign that special bottle for you is a legal no-no. The days of prohibition are behind us, but in many respects, much of the fallout from that era continues to haunt us. This is because we as consumers have lacked any sort of voice when decisions and regulations pertaining to the sale and distribution of alcohol are concerned – leaving all the decisions and influence to be made by special interests best served by an antiquated alcohol distribution system. While we certainly think that wholesalers and a distribution system have their place and serve a valuable function, there needs to be equitable representation when regulations affecting consumers are concerned. The current anti-consumer regulations don’t just hurt sales for a winery and limit choice for a consumer, they hurt engagement. And wine bloggers know best, engagement is king. That is why the Wine Bloggers Conference, and organizer Zephyr Adventures, is pleased to support the launch of the American Wine Consumer Coalition. The American Wine Consumer Coalition (AWCC) is a new advocacy organization that aims to “ represent the interests of wine lovers and to help this unique group pursue their love of wine”. Spearheading efforts for the AWCC is Tom Wark. Tom has been a long-time advocate for the rights of wine consumers and runs Wark Communications and the well-respected wine blog, Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog. He is also the founder of the Wine Blog Awards, and is founding member of the Wine Bloggers Conference Advisory Board (which he continues to serve on). When we asked Tom Wark about the motivations behind the American Wine Consumer Coalition, he said: The fact is, wine lovers across the country are still subjected to absurdly anti-consumer wine laws and a key reason for this is that consumers’ interests and views are not taken into account by lawmakers or regulators. Why? Because consumers have no advocates that can make their case. That ends with the creation of the American Wine Consumer Coalition. When an industry becomes overly-regulated or controlled by one-sided interest, free-market idealism (where consumer spending serves as the ultimate voice) can no longer be counted on as adequate. Up until now, the consumer has largely been dismissed as a relevant party when decisions are made and laws passed that affect the sale and distribution of alcohol. Horray for Tom Wark and the others at the AWCC for stepping up to the plate! If you’re interested to learn more about the American Wine Consumers Coalition, please visit their site, which launches today. To support the coalition, you can donate or join one of their membership options available for individual consumers, businesses, and associations. Individual consumers who wish to join the AWCC will not only be supporting a great cause, but will enjoy member benefits (namely in the form of discounts) that any eonophile will surely appreciate. In the words of Tom Wark, For the AWCC to be as effective as possible, it needs to gather under tens of thousands of wine lovers willing to band together for their own benefit and the benefit of other wine lovers. We hope to build a multi-thousand member coalition that can’t be ignored. The post Introducing the American Wine Consumer Coalition appeared first on Wine Bloggers Conference.

Any day now… Georgia P arrived nine days before her “official” due date. Baby P 2013′s due date is July 15 but the doctor says second-time mothers generally deliver early. So mutatis mutandis, Parzen family expansion could happen any day now. Little Georgia P doesn’t know how our lives are about the change and we’re really enjoying these last few days as a family of three. She’s such a sweet girl and she sure knows how to make her daddy melt with her smile…

Well, it’s Summer — and Wednesday, a bit late for the Wine of the Week, sorry — and we need a wine that’s crisp, bracing, racy, filled with nerve and energy, so I’m thinking sauvignon blanc and the eastern Loire Valley, where the soil rests atop vast reaches of limestone dense with marine and shell fossils deposited some 150 million years. You think this Jurassic Park of mineral plenitude doesn’t lend character to the grapes and the wines made from them? Think again, Grasshopper! The best-known region, perched on the east bank of the Loire River, is Sancerre, easy to pronounce, easy to find, but a wine whose popularity has driven up the price. Let’s look instead inside the great curve that the Loire makes here to a lesser-known appellation called Reuilly (“roo-ee”), one of several Sancerre “satellite” appellations clustered about the city of Bourges on the Cher, a tributary of the Loire. Reuilly was granted AOC status early, in 1937, for white wines made from sauvignon blanc; in 1961, red and rosé wines made from pinot noir and pinot gris were added. Today we look at the Domaine de Reuilly Les Pierres Plates 2012. The domaine goes back to 1935, when Camille Rousseau, the grandfather of present proprietor Denis Jamain, first planted vines. The estate, certified organic in 2011, consists of 17 hectares (about 42 acres), 11 planted to sauvignon blanc, 4 to pinot noir and two to pinot gris. Annual production is about 11,000 cases. As the name implies, Domaine de Reuilly Les Pierres Plates 2012 derives from a specific vineyard whose sauvignon blanc grapes go only into this wine. The color is pale straw-gold; the bouquet is a fragrant but very subtle amalgam of roasted lemon and lemon balm, freshly mowed grass, a touch of hay, spare hints of jasmine, pear and juniper and pungency driven by a profound limestone and flint element. What did I assert as the requirements in the first sentence of this post? A wine that’s crisp, bracing, racy, filled with nerve and energy, and boy does this model fulfill those parameters. This is very dry, crisp and lively, a wine animated by vivid acidity and the scintillating presence of limestone-based minerality; it feels cleansing, lithe and chiseled, yet, for all that, exceedingly pleasant and inviting, with real personality. At 12.5 percent alcohol, you could drink a bunch, sitting out on the porch or patio, with a hunk of goat cheese and slices of crusty bread or a platter of grilled shrimp. Now through 2015 or ’16. Excellent. About $20. Imported by Kermit Lynch, Berkeley, Calif. Tasted at a trade event.

I recently went to Burgundy for the first time and have [...]The post A visit to Domaine Jean Francois Rapet ets Fils, Burgundy appeared first on The Wine Sleuth.

A collection of links from the reporters and editors of the Dining section.

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Riesling has become known as Washington State’s signature white variety. Washington is the largest Riesling producing state in the United States. And, Washington State’s own Chateau Ste. Michelle is the largest Riesling producer in the world. Chateau Ste. Michelle is Washington State’s founding winery with its roots dating back to the repeal of Prohibition. In 1976, Ste. Michelle built a French-style chateau in Woodinville, just northeast of Seattle. While all of Chateau Ste. Michelle’s vineyards are located on the east side of the Cascade Mountains, all of their white wines are made in Woodinville. Riesling is one of the most versatile grape varieties. It can be made in many different styles from bone dry to very sweet, reflect the regional character of where it is grown, and is extremely food-friendly. And, it is probably the most age worthy of all white wine varieties. We recently had the opportunity to taste a couple of Chateau Ste. Michelle Rieslings in a blind samples tasting, the 2012 Dry Riesling and the 2012 Harvest Select Sweet Riesling. Both wines are very good, so no matter your preference on the sweetness scale, Chateau Ste. Michelle has you covered. And with suggested retail prices of $10, and which can frequently be found for far less, these wines deliver serious bang for your buck. 2012 Chateau Ste. Michelle Dry Riesling (Columbia Valley, Washington): Pale straw yellow. Beautiful nose with white peach, citrus, and floral aromas. White peach and lime come through on the palate. Dry and light-bodied with crisp acidity. Well-balanced with a very long, refreshing finish. Residual Sugar: 0.71% Quality: 4 stars (out of 5) QPR: 5 bangs for your buck (out of 5) Where to buy: Received as sample, suggested retail $10; Available elsewhere, $6 to $12 2012 Chateau Ste. Michelle Harvest Select Sweet Riesling (Columbia Valley, Washington): Very pale, straw yellow. Aromatic with peach blossoms and honeysuckle on the nose. Peach, apricot, and floral notes come through on the palate. Medium sweet and light to medium-bodied with crisp acidity and a very long finish. Residual Sugar: 4.71% Quality: 3.5 stars (out of 5) QPR: 5 bangs for your buck (out of 5) Where to buy: Received as sample, suggested retail $10; Available elsewhere, $8 to $10 Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling: Something for Everyone was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.