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International Grenache Day!

It’s International Grenache Day!  What better way to celebrate than to open a bottle of Grenache based wine!

Grenache is a varietal that thrives in hot, dry conditions.  This creates a lot of sugar, which in turn creates high alcohol.  Grenache is rarely bottled by itself as a single varietal.  It is usually blended with other grapes, adding complexity and alcohol strength.

Originating in Spain (where it is known as Garnacha and is blended to make the prestigious wines of Priorat), this varietal is also predominant in the South of France.  It is the main grape used in the famous southern Rhone Valley wines of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, as well as Gigondas and Vacqueyras.   It also makes distinctive rosés!  Grenache is also found in California and Australia, as well as the Italian island of Sardinia where it is called Cannonau.

I love the Rhone Valley and therefore have quite a few Grenache based wines in my cellar, but decided to open one that wouldn’t break the bank and has seen a few years in the bottle.  (I have some ’07 and 09 Châteauneuf-du-Papes and Gigondas’ that still need some time!)  So, I opened a 2006 Perrin & Fils Les Christins Vacqueyras in the $25 range.  I selected wisely!

This ruby colored wine is a blend of 75% Grenache and 25% Syrah.  The expressive nose has cherry, clove, tobacco and barnyard.  The palate has the cherry, along with some plum, pepper and a nice earthiness.  The tannins are soft and the finish is medium long with some mellow spiciness.

This wine has that Old World quality, but is very approachable with a lot of fruit upfront.  New World wine lovers will certainly enjoy this wine as well!

So, if you’re ready to crack open a bottle to celebrate International Grenache Day, have at it!  This wine is a winner!

 

2010 Quinta do Crasto Branco Douro

It’s still hot here in Florida, so I thought that it would be appropriate to share a fun, tangy white wine from Portugal that I tasted the other night.

The 2010 Quinta do Crasto Branco from Douro is a blend of 45% Rabigato, 40% Gouveio and 15% Roupeiro.  It is perfect as an aperitif, or with some light finger foods or seafood.

This straw colored wine has a nice balance of citrus and a touch of tropical fruit on the nose.

The palate is fresh with nice minerality.  Again, it is balanced with the fruit and good acidity.

It will last another year or two, but is drinking beautifully now, so I suggest drink up!

At under $20 this is a fun wine to drink while watching the sunset before dinner with friends!

K Syrah

I’m a huge lover of Syrah!  While the Rhone Valley of France is where this varietal first emerged, it is now well known in New World wine regions as well.  It was one of the first varieties imported for planting in Australia, where it is called Shiraz.  Yep, it’s the same grape.  Many wine lovers don’t realize that Shiraz is indeed Syrah!

There are many different styles of Syrah.  In the northern Rhone Valley it is often blended with a bit of Viognier.  In the southern Rhone it is an ingredient in the fabulous and famous Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines.  In Australia, Cabernet Sauvignon is often used as a blending partner.  California and Washington are also making some wonderful examples of this fabulous varietal, often using 100% Syrah (as they do in the Cornas region of France), making the wines dark, inky and pretty darned tannic.

A winery doing wonderful things with Syrah is K Vintners out of Walla Walla, Washington.  Charles Smith is the owner and winemaker, and is also owner and winemaker of Charles Smith Wines.

A couple of nights ago I cracked open a bottle of his 2009 K Syrah from the Pheasant Vineyard in the Wahluke Slope AVA.   This aromatic wine has lots of red fruit, especially raspberry and currant, on the nose.  Some lavender and violet are also present.  The smooth, velvety palate is rich with cherry and the raspberry and currant, along with some wonderful porky nuances.  The finish is nice and long.  Decant this for an hour or two to let the tannins settle down, or cellar it for up to at least a decade.  This is a very yummy wine.

Charles Smith is one interesting wine guy!  He definitely takes the stuffiness out of wine.  Originally from the Sacramento, California area, he spent nine years managing rock bands and concert tours throughout Europe.  His passion for wine was developed while on the road with such groups as the famous Danish duo The Ravonettes.  He returned to the states and landed in the Seattle area, where he opened a wine store.  He discovered Walla Walla on a road trip in 1999 and moved there to start making wine.  He looks a little like Sammy Hagar, and his wines rock!

While visiting the Walla Walla wine region a couple of years ago, I paid a visit to the tasting room at Charles Smith Wines.  It is located right in the heart of the city and is a really fun spot to taste.  The place is huge, with exposed pipes, wooden rafters and great brick walls.  This tasting room truly seems to be a reflection of the winemaker’s persona.  It was a blast listening to music while tasting some of their awesome wines.

So grab a K Syrah, turn up the volume and pop the cork!  It’s time to party!!!

Heuriger Stockingerhof in Dürnstein, Austria

In the heart of Austria’s Wachau wine region sits a delightful little town named Dürnstein, which is definitely worth an overnight stop.  While visiting last month we enjoyed a boat ride up and down the Danube River, relished in the view of the distinctly blue Abbey Church, and explored the small town and it’s lovely shops that sit below the medieval castle from which the city gained its name.

Here the grapes grow, the wine flows and heurigen await their visitors.  A heurige is a wine tavern usually attached to the winemakers’ home.  This is where the family’s wine of the most recent vintage, sometimes along with some rustic food, is served.  Only the owner’s wine is served here, and traditionally the winemaker and his family make all of the food from scratch.  The word “heurige” is used for both the wine of the latest vintage as well as the tavern where it is consumed.

While visiting Dürnstein we were fortunate enough to happen upon the Winery (and Heuriger) Stockingerhof.  The winemaker and owner Peter, along with his lovely wife, were gracious hosts.  We stopped for a glass of wine in the afternoon, where we enjoyed a Grüner Veltliner Steinfeder 2010 as well as a Riesling Smaragd 2010.  When Peter discovered we were fellow lovers of golf, he presented a bottle of his “Birdie One”, a Grüner Veltliner Federspiel 2011.  This wine was ranked among the top 3 wines in both the Wine & Spirit Asia Challenge in Singapore and the Decanter World Wine Award in London.  Over 30,000 of the best wines of the world entered these contests, so you can imagine what a nice wine this is.

We returned that night for dinner and ordered a Caprese Salad and the Mushroom Goulash.  Oh my, what a wonderful meal.  The Goulash was to die for, served with large warm rolls that we used to soak up the juice from the Goulash.  It was by far my favorite dish of the trip.  To enhance our meal we ordered a bottle of his “Birdie Red”, a Zweigelt blend made of 50% Zweigelt from the 2008 vintage and 50% Zweigelt from the 2009 vintage.

To end our meal Peter brought us out a glass of his homemade apricot brandy.  The apricots used were from a tree in front of us, growing right by his vineyard.  It was delicious and a great ending to a perfect meal.

The next time I head to the Wachau region, not only will I drink and dine at Stockingerhof again, but I’ll also be sure to call and make a reservation for the Pension, as they also have rooms in which to stay.

Check them out at:  www.stockingerhof.at

2009 Chappellet Signature Cabernet Sauvignon

With dinner last night I had the 2009 Chappellet Signature Cabernet Sauvignon.  It’s still a baby, but with some decanting it is very approachable now.  And what a nice wine it is!

This Bordeaux blend is 76% Cabernet Sauvignon (just past the required amount of 75% to be called a Cabernet Sauvignon in California!), 11% Malbec, 9% Merlot and 4% Petit Verdot.  The grapes are grown in the dry, rocky soils of Pritchard Hill in Napa Valley.

The nose produced a wonderful floral aroma, specifically violet, along with some currant, black cherry and plum.  On the palate were the currant and plum, along with blackberry, cassis and some cinnamon and ginger.

This is a complex wine that is nicely balanced with just a touch of oak.

What a great bottle with which to start the long weekend!

 

 

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