My first life experiences with wine were in the upper reaches of New York State, during college. I lived on campus my senior year at Colgate University (my alma mater), living in the French-speaking-only (yea, right) La Maison Franςaise in an attempt to better my oral skills for culinary school the following year in Switzerland. Throughout the year, I didn’t learn much French but Stephanie, the live-in grad student from Dijon, France and I had a good ‘ole time exploring the wineries in the Finger Lakes region. Fond memories, all of them. And I created new ones this past week.
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King Estate specializes in Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir, and that’s what I’ve been sipping on these past eight years since I met them. Still family-owned — like most wineries in Oregon — they’ve expanded their horizons with their other, more affordable (and still tasty) Acrobat Pinot Noir and Gris. I really admire what these guys have been doing. Read more: Wine reviews: King Estate 2009 Domaine Pinot Gris and 2008 Pinot Noir I tasted the black label M. Chevallier Carte Noire Cava with trepidation and suppressed my high hopes, attempting to give it a fair and balanced assessment (which is tough without tasting blind). But I was pretty damn impressed. That was a few months ago. Now, it’s my house pour on a Sunday morning, sometimes mixed with tangerine or orange juice for mimosas, sometimes straight up. It all depends on what kind of eggs we’re having. Read more: Wine review: The best $5 bubbly you can buy — M. Chevallier Cava Red blends appear to be all the rage these days, and I’m all for it. Many times, single varietal wines can be one dimensional and flat, lacking in personality or interest. But mix in some other grapes and beautiful things happen. The Europeans, of course, have known this non-secret for eons, especially in Bordeaux, France and most parts of Spain and Italy. And Trentadue has known this for 30 years. Read more: Wine review: Trentadue 2009 Old Patch Red Alexander Valley Even generic, corporate-owned wineries like Estancia can make good wine if they have great fruit from Monterey, specifically their Pinnacles Ranch vineyard. And another thing corporate wineries have to offer is lower prices. Like under $15 for a pretty decent Pinot. Read more: Wine review: Estancia 2009 Pinot Noir Monterey Pinnacles Ranch Established in 1986 as the California home of Spain’s Ferrer family (who own Freixenet), Gloria Ferrer embodies the winning result of a large gamble placed 29 years ago. Sure, the Ferrers likely had some money to burn, but to throw down cash to buy 160 acres of land in Sonoma County’s unproven Carneros Valley takes some courage. However, they did have some experience in the bubbly arena. Read more: Wine review: Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Noirs Sparkling The tasty Climber Chardonnay is part jumbo juicebox, part boxed wine. The pouch houses 2 bottles of wine with 90% less waste than glass. And… it’s quite drinkable. Even tasty. What’s more… it’s affordable and 1% of sales go towards Trees for the Future organization. Read more: Wine review: The Climber Unoaked California Chardonnay in a pouch Quick — name a product that has thousands of different ingredients, labels and producers, is regulated by a list of requirements as long as an elephant’s … um … trunk and is distributed differently in every state and country in the world. It’s alcoholic, rich with minutia and undeservedly intimidating to the majority of Americans. Maybe it’s exposure to definition No. 2 that rendered people anxious, or maybe it’s society that made us all believe that in order to appreciate wine, we must be intimate with every detail before our lips touch the glass. Read more: The battle for the bottle: Wine dinners are a recipe for exploration When I explored the limitless wines of Italy’s Tuscany wine region during a trip last year, I became enamored of the high quality “Toscana IGT” labeled reds. These simple table wines helped salve my weary wallet, already weathered by the leather purse and jacket shops of Florence. But they weren’t just inexpensive — they were high quality sangiovese-based reds, reminiscent of the more expensive Chianti which normally cost a lot more money but often aren’t worth it. Read more: Wine review: Banfi 2008 Centine Toscana Not sure why but Vinho Verde doesn’t get much respect from the sophisticates out there. The wine snobs, the “connoisseurs” or the collectors don’t rave about the summer utility of this Portuguese white. Perhaps they prefer to limit their consumption of Portuguese choices to the venerated Port wine sector which overshadows Portugal’s VVs. But this light, slightly spritzy and refreshing yet refreshingly affordable wine is just what the 90-100 degree weather and crappy economy demand right now. Read more: The best, inexpensive summer sippin’ wine: Vinho Verde from Portugal |
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