…or else you’ll end up with a bottle looking like this….Yup. I did it. I made a classic ‘impatient wine drinker’ mistake. The company was thirsty, I wanted to impress, I hurriedly reached for a prized ‘06 Archery Summit Red Hills Estate Pinot Noir and yanked it from the fridge.

I knew it was going to happen as I was doing it, but it was too late. Newton’s Law’s of motion were already on display, I watched in horror as the scene in front of me played out in slow motion.

It’s a common problem with today’s Wine Fridge appliance, regardless of manufacturer.  In an effort to try and squeeze as many shelves in a relatively small space, they are stacked tightly together, much like the coach section of most commercial aircraft.  There is generally adequate room for skinny, Bordeaux bottles, and certainly the traditionally slender Riesling and Alsace wine bottles have no problems.  But for those of us that are blessed with more full-figured (I prefer the term ‘curvy’,) Burgundy and Rhone bottles, we are in for a tight squeeze.

Wine fridge shelves are generally made of wood, and have a bit of give.  So by carefully pulling the shelf above your pinot bottle, you can eek out enough room to remove the bottle unscathed.  Carefully being the operative word here.  My lack of carefulness led to the predicament-at-hand; thus this blog post.

Fortunately, a wine’s quality is not affected by the condition of its label. 2006 was a pretty good year for Oregon Pinot, and Archery Summit can generally be counted in to deliver solid results in any year. If you followed WineExpedition in the past you may recall our visit to Archery Summit resulted in some good Pinot being poured, and if memory serves, all of the labels were in excellent shape (apparently they know how to lift a shelf over there).

This Pinot had a nice, vibrant color, and a good nose of spicy red cherries and a hint of sweeter berries (like a ripe raspberry). The palate was substantial yet refined, with rich flavors of wild berries, cherries and a hint of forest-y mushrooms. It was balanced, with a weight on my tongue and a rolling finish. After about an hour, I revisited and was rewarded with an even better experience; the wine had settled and more of the spices came into play. The torn label was quickly forgotten as we finished the bottle, smiles of satisfaction on our faces.

What the label should have looked like…

This afternoon, I took a moment to eyeball my other Pinot bottles to make sure they were placed in such a way as to put as little of the label in contact with the shelves as possible.

Just for fun, I googled the subject of ‘torn labels on hastily removed Pinot bottles’, and I actually found a good quote in a review of a 170-bottle wine fridge onthis online review site. The reviewer revealed: “…most of the shelves (except for one shelf) don’t fit odd shaped bottles such as a Turley Zin, Pinot Noir or Champagne bottles. You have to remove shelves to make those bottles fit; otherwise the labels scratch off…” Hmmm… If only I had read this review sooner.

Considering I have a good half-dozen bottles of Pinot in my fridge, along with four of those damn ‘odd-shaped’ Turley Zinfandel bottles, I need to proceed with caution. The motto here should be: ‘…slow and steady wins the race…’.

By the way, for those of you who noticed a bit of a long spell between posts, I hope to be posting a bit more often. My Wine Expedition is back on track… I’ll explain soon…

Cheers!

…yea. I was surprised too… I mean, I’ve had my share of Malbec, but hadn’t come across a Sparkling Wine from Argentina. Until now…

The 2008 Tapiz Extra Brut Sparkling Wine from Mendoza is a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and I opened it with an impromptu Tamale lunch last weekend (tamales? at my house? I know, it’s a shocker).

This is a tasty glass o’ bubbles: bright, fresh, and fruity. The nose has a gentle, floral nose of sweet apples and a spritz of lemon. On the palate, pears, apples and that citrus zest are wrapped in a steady trickle of little bubbles. The folks at Tapiz produce it in the traditional method and age it for fourteen months on the lees. I’m told this is the first vintage of sparkling wine for Bodega Tapiz and in my humble opinion, they did quite well and for the nice price of $19.99.

…just a little article I wrote for the Cork’d Content website, discussing my recent trip to Pinot Days. Going to the big wine show reminds me of going to a big rock concert… Check it out.

The devastating earthquake in Haiti has left an entire nation in dire need of aid. Here’s your chance to help; it’s a joint effort between the wine charity site BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE A BOTTLE and online wine magazine PALATE PRESS. You can help in two ways: either by donating a bottle from your cellar for auction, or by bidding on those bottles up for auction… or both.

From the press release:

The idea is simple- wine lovers contribute a bottle from their cellar, then bid on the mixed cases. Some tremendous bottles have already been offered, from 1976 Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Beerenauslese to a Methuselah (6.0 Liter bottle) of 2005 Rodney Strong Rockaway Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. The generous contributions of wine lovers will all be turned directly into money for disaster relief.

From the article posted on both sites:

The auction will be held on line, in the comments section, in this post. Palate Press: The online wine magazine will auction the wine in cases, as they arrive. David Honig, Publisher of Palate Press: The online wine magazine, will start the ball rolling with a 1976 Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Beerenauslese, retail value $139.00.

Please promise your contribution in the comments, and then contribute your bottle for the auction. Then come back and bid, bid, bid.

The process might be a bit unwieldy, but the goal is to get the wine in, and the money out, as quickly as possible. As soon as I have the first case, the auction will start. As soon as I have the second case (or we’ll give it two days if the wine floods in), we will close the auction on the first case. We will do it until the wine runs out. Other management suggestions are welcome, indeed invited.

All the money will go to the American Red Cross.

…hats off to the fine folks at Palate and Brother can you spare a bottle for putting this together. Direct any questions to WineForHaiti@palatepress.com.

That’’s right…. the film is almost here. Rock Star/Winemaker Maynard James Keenan, whom you may know from his musical endeavors (Tool, A Perfect Circle, Pucifier) and his wine-making partner Eric Glomski want you to know that there’s some seriously good wine coming out of Arizona. So they teamed with documentary filmmakers Ryan Page and Christopher Pomerenke (Moog, The Heart is a Drum Machine to create Blood Into Wine which premieres at the W Hotel in Scottsdale, AZ on Feb. 19 at 7:00 pm.

Keenan owns Caduceus Cellars and Glomski owns Page Springs Cellars and together they own Arizona Stronghold. The two have ‘toured’ together across the U.S. to introduce their wines to the public, conducting tasting on-the-air at radio stations and meeting fans in person at retail locations including Whole Foods Markets. The film follows their trek across the country and reveals the difficulties they face in producing wine from a relatively unknown wine region with a pretty harsh geography.

Nationwide screenings will be announced soon with a DVD release coming Spring 2010; we will keep you posted. In the meantime, you can watch the trailer here.

Don’t let the name deceive you. This bottle of wine from Washington is all good…

The Owen Roe folks are making some head-turning wines in the Pacific Northwest, more specifically Oregon and Washington state.

Owen Roe’s Sinister Hand is their Rhone style blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. According to the winery: “…On this label the family crest depiction of a severed left hand tells the story of a rowing competition among the ONeills & the OReillys (Owen Roe was an ONeill). Whoever touched land first after rowing across the lake was rewarded with the land he touched. Lagging behind, one of the kinsfolk grabs his sword to cleave his hand and pitches it ashore to touch land first. He won the land and eventually ruled over it as king.”

While I don’t know if I’d cleave my hand and throw it at the wine shelf to grab the last bottle, I have to admit this wine is pretty damn good. I was hesitant about the Grenache/Syrah mix (if you follow the blog you know that I’m wary of peppery-flavors in my wine), but it wasn’t much of an issue here, more on that in a second. The breakdown for the ‘07 Sinister Hand is 62% Grenache, 21% Syrah, 17% Mourvedre, and the grapes come from three areas of Washington state wine country: the Yakima Valley, Walla Walla Valley, and Horse Heaven Hills.

The wine was dark, (and dare I say, sinister?) on the pour. The nose revealed spices and some pepper (uh-oh), but as soon as the wine touched my tongue, the quality of the fruit showed itself.. fresh cherries, blackberries and currants bathed the inside of my mouth in a coat of velvet and smooth tannins-just a hint of the pepper was contained in the finish. Once again, the pepper works as long as the fruit is good enough to contain it and that was certainly the case here. Just a really, really good-drinking wine that was great all by itself, but that I would have no problem bringing to a barbecue or having with a nice piece of meat.

I’m told the Owen Roe Pinots and Syrahs are also fantastic. They’ve been added to my list…

Syrah is a wine that I don’t open unless I’m in the mood. Typically, Syrahs have a backbone flavor of white pepper, pepper corns or some sort of the stuff that makes me sneeze, which isn’t a flavor I find myself jones-ing for very often.

But occasionally I ‘go there’ and occasionally I discover a Syrah that either lacks the peppery flavor, or the fruit is big enough/layered enough to mute the pepper, and keep it as a quiet, subtle note in the background; like the chef gave the wine just a pinch of pepper. Now some purists may argue that the winemaker is dropping the ball in that case; they’re not making a wine that’s true to it’s expected characteristics.

Whatever. If it tastes good, and enough people like it, who cares. But I digress…

The 2004 Kynsi “Edna Ranch” Syrah turned out to be one of those Syrahs.

Starting with the nose, the pepper was a no-show; just nice aromas of dark fruit and a tinge of licorice. On the palate, I got lots of plums and some berries, a little spicy coffee, some more licorice and then… just a teeny-weeny bit’ of white pepper. I had to search for it, otherwise I might have missed it (which wouldn’t have been a problem). It was a bright burst of fruit in my mouth, but balanced and with a nice finish.

Oh, and Wine Enthusiast gave it 90 points. Apparently someone over there is okay with just a pinch of pepper too.

I had been dabbling in wine in the early 00’s before I went on my first Napa tasting trip… and then I was hooked! That tasting trip is another story for another day, but shortly thereafter, I went to my first local Southern California ‘tasting event’. It was a “Cab-Fest” put on by our friends at The Wine House. Little did I know that at that tasting, I would discover such a special bottle…

There were quite a few Cabernets on the tasting menu that day (like 25 or 30 if memory serves; and it doesn’t always serve anymore!) No human could possibly get through all of those wines without having a dead palette half way through; fortunately I tried the Clark Claudon Estate Cab before mine gave out.

The wine was incredible: layered, complex, special. It was a cut above, and in my amateur wine tasting mind (not that I’m much more than an ‘advanced-beginner’ now), this wine was the best I had tasted. I voted for it to be the ‘winner’ of this festival, and apparently the majority of those in attendance agreed, as it won the festival hands down. I bought two bottles, and they’re still in my wine fridge today…

Fast forward to when Jeff and I came up with the idea for WineExpedition and decided to take a ‘tech scouting’ trip to Napa and Sonoma to figure out what we were going to shoot, how many cameras we’d need, etc. (it’s for work dear.)

Naturally, I looked up Clark Claudon and saw on their website that they didn’t have a tasting room on the property, but I gave them a call just to see if there would be any way to visit… Lo and behold, a woman answered the phone and said that in fact they would be on site on the Sunday we’d be in town, and would love to have us come by.  I said “Great!” and asked for her name. “Laurie Claduon” she replied.  “Wow” I thought.  I was talking to the Claudon of Clark Claudon.

I knew it would be interesting when during the course of giving me directions to the property she said “after you pass the school, look for the second mailbox on your left and turn on to the dirt road…”

Sunday morning rolled around, we rolled into Napa, and began our trek into the Pope Valley area.  We found the mailbox, just as she described, and within minutes were shaking hands with Laurie and her husband, Tom Clark. They gave us a tour of the incredibly beautiful hillside vineyard and we walked back up to the house for a taste of wine.  I figured we’d be back down in town in time for lunch.

Seven hours later, as the sun started to slip behind the hills and we opened another bottle of Cab (we had tried the Wild Iris Sauvignon Blanc as well) I thought it might be time to get going.  The thing was, Tom and Laurie loved to visit and talk and share their amazing wine with us.  By the time we turned the headlights on and headed back down the dirt path, I felt like I had known Tom and Laurie all my life.

Such was the beginning for what I predict will be a lifelong friendship between WineExpedition and Clark Claudon.  If you’ve clicked on our webisodes you’ve gotten a chance to meet Tom and see their wonderful property; an amazing guy and an amazing piece of land.

In 2005, Clark Claudon introduced Three Stones as a little sister to their Estate Cabernet Sauvignon.  Last week, Jeff and I decided to try the 2006 Clark Claudon Three Stones Cabernet Sauvignon .  It’s some of their wonderful estate Cabernet with a dash of Merlot and Cab Franc.

This baby is young; it would have been nice to keep it for a year or two, but I’m impatient.  So, we decanted it (and told it to hurry up and open…) and we poured the glasses ten minutes later (note to self, plan ahead and decant earlier). I noticed the bright, vibrant color right away, and could smell bright red fruit on the nose. Flavors of plums, blackberries and oak with hints of vanilla and chocolate on the palate, with a long finish. Nice and silky, this wine wrapped itself around the inside of my mouth for a while… it was a beautiful thing.

Once again, Clark Claudon didn’t disappoint, though sadly, the bottle of Three Stones didn’t last as long as our visit with Laurie and Tom.  Next time we’ll need to buy more bottles…

Host Tim Ering visits Napa’s Clark Claudon Vineyards and learns about quality, mountain-grown Cabernet Sauvignon.

I asked our trusted wine merchant Steve Greer for something good, but something cheap.  I told him I was in the mood for something different… maybe something French?

He said “I’ve got just the bottle for you…” and handed me the 2005 Chateau Busquet Vieilles Vignes from Lussac St-Emilion.

No meal to speak of, just me and my wine glass and the sofa.  And it was just what I needed.  A very balanced wine.  I could smell some of the oak and tasted it as well, though it was subtle and well-integrated with the tasty blackberry flavors that dominated my taste buds.   I found that the wine is 50% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Franc, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon; a well-crafted blend for $14.99.  I may just have to pick up another bottle; maybe tonight…