Category Archives: red

Chateau Ste Michelle 2005 Columbia Valley Merlot takes the prize

I bet you’re dying to know what I drank the other night with my New York Strip steak–which wine took the prize so to speak. Let me give you a hint:

Day 2 Itinerary: Food & Wine Pairing at Ste. Michelle–The first stop of the day will take place at Chateau Ste. Michelle, Washington’s original Chateau and founding winery. Following a guided tour, our guest bloggers will enjoy an informative food and wine pairing experience.

Yes, you guessed it, I went with the wine selection from Washington State to add to my collection of posts about Washington State wines to compete in the WBC-or-Bust contest. And like I said in the previous post, it’s the one Washington State merlot the grocery store had–a 2005 Chateau St. Michelle. Makes sense for my first WA wine to write about it the first stop on the bus, yes? Maybe this will be a trend–or a direction on where to go with this series of posts!

The 2005 Chateau St. Michelle merlot is soft, supple, smooth and easy to drink; in fact I drank most of the bottle last night save one large glass to enjoy today as I write this post! The alcohol is a reasonable 13.5 so it didn’t knock off my socks (or any other clothing items!)

The color of the merlot is a deep concentrated plummy red while the nose is cherry and cola with some berry, plum, and licorice: typical, not surprising. It’s got lots of nice friendly fruit flavor, mostly cherry and other dark fruits; again, to be expected. At first I thought it too flabby, lacking structure, but the wine grew on me and it nicely complemented my steak with stilton crumbled on top. It did NOT go with the leftover potatoes from Wednesdays corned beef (ohh, but with the black and tan I enjoyed on Wednesday they were scrumptiously delectably matched!)

According to the Chateau St. Michelle website, food styles that match well with Merlot include

Mild to Intensely Flavored: Grilled salmon, roasted lamb, wild game, and balsamic or tomato-based sauces work well with the jammy flavors of Merlot.

Chinese: Merlot has a softer taste that lends itself to the flavors of Chinese food. Peking duck, mu shu pork, braised soy pork.

I can totally see this pairing nicely with the plum sauce and flavors in mu shu whether it be chicken, pork, duck, tofu or beef! They of course suggest one of their cabs to go with the steak!

The following day I had it with some crackers and cheeses included aged gouda and an aged goat cheese gouda. The merlot paired well with both and was a terrific way to celebrate what my grandma Gwenn called “Wine-Thirty.”

Overall, while merlot isn’t my favorite varietal, I’m not one to turn up my nose just because it’s merlot; I’m willing to give it a go and I’ve had some good ones. This 2005 Chateau St. Michelle is a great value on sale at $10. Bring it to a party and everyone will enjoy it. It’s a terrific, mild, juicy red wine for the white wine drinker.

Now to find another Washington Merlot to taste by Thursday! And guess what we’ll be having for dinner? That’s right–I’m going for Chinese take-out of Mu shu pork!

(This post clocks in at over 550 words–nearly 4 posts for the price of wine! Ummn, one! I’m thinking instead of number of posts, the contest should go with number of words!)

Live Twitter Tasting Focuses on California Cabernet Sauvs Thurs. February 11

Rick Bakas has organized a tasting of California Cabernet Sauv’s using 140 character comments on twitter for Thursday February 11. From 5-5:30pm, participants will taste and tweet first about cab wines from the southern  portion of the state (Paso Robles and down) from 5-5:30pm, taste and tweet about cabs from the middle region of the state from 5:30-6pm, then taste and tweet about cabs from the northern reaches from 6-7pm.

He encourages us to live it up and open, taste and tweet about wines from each region. I’m not sure whether I will do that; I do know that I will tasting and tweeting about wines made by Michael Meagher, winemaker for Vino V and Old Creek Road Winery. I wish I could make it to the Old Creek Ranch Winery,  and do this tasting with him,  but I’ll be here doing it at home. Next time!

Will you be joining in the fun? If so, use the hashtag #CaliCabs. You might also want to do a search and column on that hashtag so you can see what everyone else is tasting and saying.

Wine Blogging Wednesday: Put a twist into your holiday! Or celebrate a twisted holiday?

The Wine Blogging Wednesday prompt for December comes from Twisted Oak Winery’s El Jefe–

who naturally adds a twist to it. The point, he says of this WBW, is to come up with your own holiday pairings, and to have fun:

Pick any winter holiday or observance EXCEPT Hanukkah, Christmas Day, Kwanzaa, or New Years Day or Eve, and choose a wine to celebrate it! For purposes of this WBW, the holiday date chosen must be between December 7, 2009 and January 7, 2010. You may also pair a food with your chosen holiday and wine, but that is optional. Here’s the complete Wine Blogging Wednesday #64 prompt on El Jefe’s blog.
So my holiday was a Winter Solstice Santacon which we celebrated on Sunday December 20 with a pre-Santacon brunch serving a BBQ ham. I wanted to serve a sparkling shiraz but it was easier for me to conjure up 25 men, women, and children in Santa suits on bikes than a sparkling shiraz at any price point. I did have a “Biker” zin that seemed appropriate, a Poema cava and a friend promised to bring some sparkling wine and orange juice. So I left it up to the potluck gods to see what came: a bottle of Zonin Proseco which we opened as well as the Poema Cava which ended up on the ride with us.

But what I was curious about, what I wanted to open but didn’t, was the Four Vines 2007 zinfandel “biker” from Paso Robles. Not only was the wine appropriately named for a Santacon Bike Ride, but I was curious how it would go with ham, and just plain curious about it. I’m a huge fan of zinfandel in general, and I love what Eberle does with the varietal so much that I was a member there for a while. (In fact, I have a bottle of 1999 Eberle zin I just found in the cellar; I imagine I need to drink it up soon!)

And there was the fact that Wine Spectator had talked about this wine back in February and tempted me, then in December it showed up on the WS 2009 Top 100 list and my local wine shop had it–so I bought a bottle.

So on Tuesday night, with Wine Blogging Wednesday looming, and only a Zonin Proseco and a Poema cava to brag about in my Santacon post, I broke open the bottle to enjoy with the last bit of Santacon ham, and to imagine how it might have been on Sunday with the Santacon.

Now, we don’t usually drink $20 wines on a week night. In fact, on our budget we don’t often drink $20 wines. But I knew this wine was not going to last long at The Ventura Wine Store and I’d just got an email saying they’d received a few more bottles. I wanted to go for it and buy a few more but figured I’d best taste this one first, you know, to be sure…

Well it was FABULOUS! From my first tentative swirl, sniff, and sip, I was telling the Big Monkey, wow, this stuff is really good! Lots of nice zinfandel character and color: a nice deep cherry red,  nicely balanced, some dusty blackberry charm, some cedar, a wonderfully long finish.

Best–it was AMAZING with the ham. The spice and fruit in the zin brought out the spice –especially the clove and sweet smoky flavors in the BBQ ham. It tasted decided different with this wine that it had before. And what an great difference. When they talk about the chemistry of wine and food interacting on your palate, it’s easy to roll your eyes. The Big Monkey didn’t plan to have any wine at all; we thought he’d have some on Weds or Thurs when he’d be off the next day.

But on my insistence, he tasted it. And loved it, even though he’s more of a cab or cab/syrah kind of guy. He liked it so much that when I ran off to hear Dottie Grossman and Michael Vlatkovixh perform with my pal Jeff Kaiser sitting in, he drank up most of the bottle that we’d intended to save!

This well-balanced baby had plenty of structure and tannin to put down for awhile (but how long?) so I left it with the cap on to see how it would hold up. The last half glass on Friday night indicated  that by Saturday night it would be  a bit too flat and blah.

So really, the bottom line is, this wine hits the spot. It really does. It’s absolutely wonderful for a holiday dinner dominated by ham (New Year’s anyone?) and it’s forgiving for most sides.

Wine Blogging Wednesday #58: wine & music symbiotics

A month or so ago I went copper river salmon to a tasting at Paradise Pantry in downtown Ventura where Vino V winemaker Michael Meagher showed off his chardonnay, his Confundido blend, his pinot noir, and his syrah. I knew the syrah and even used it for the Wine Blogging Wednesday North vs South Challenge, so I was excited to experience the others. At a rushed tasting that night (we had a documentary on loons we’d planned to catch that night and we were on bikes), I loved the chardonnay because it was NOT overwhelmed by oak, and I was super impressed by the pinot which means a lot because I’m not always impressed by California pinots. I knew when it was wild salmon season, I wanted to pair it.love copper river salmon with Red Rex

Fast forward to Copper River salmon season, those fleeting, magical few weeks in early June which I wish would last for months, but this year may even be shorter than the typical Memorial Day weekend to Father’s Day or sometimes July 4th weekend. The Copper River salmon season lasts as long as the allotment, and this year the allotment is so small that Von’s won’t even commit to having it one day to the next; when they have it, it’s $29.99 a pound unless you’re a Vons Club member which means it ranges in price from $8.99-15.99. Right now it’s $12.99. Typically we prepare it simply: some olive oil, salt and pepper, a squirt of fresh lemon then cook it on the outdoor grill.

Vino V pinot 2005 smSo when I learned that Gonzo Gastronomy’s Wine Blogging Wednesday #58 Prompt “Now I’m waiting for Wednesday, waiting for Wednesday…” was to do a tasting under different musical influences, I thought: FUN! Then I thought: Gotta get some of the Vino V pinot and taste it with some Copper River salmon and then sit around and listen to music! (This is how I broke the news to the Big Monkey–you be my dj and I’ll be your dancer and we’ll both do the drinking! You can imagine this suggestion was greeted with enthusiasm!)

Just to make it more interesting, and because I’ve become quite fond of NZ pinot noirs following the Wine Blogger’s Conference last October, I opened a bottle of Babich 2004 Lone Tree which I found on clearance for $8 at Vons. It typically retails between $15 and $20. babich pinot 2004 sm

The Vino V has super limited distribution but since they’re local, I was able to pick up a bottle that night from winemaker Michael Meagher who was hosting a winemaker dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Brooks.  It typicaly retails between $40 and $45 but for members of their email club, it’s 10% less or on special at $35 which is what I bought it for.

While we were preparing our dinner, we of course opened the wines and snacked a little on some simple wheat and flax organic crackers from Trader Joes. The Babich was room temperature rather than cellar temperature like the Vino V, which was especially important to the Vino V since it is 14.5% while the Babich is 13.5%.

At first there were many characteristics that we really liked about the Babich, and we liked it even more after we chilled it down a bit: it has a nice, earthy character, a generous nose, and surprising depth and complexity with notes of eucalyptus and truffle. We liked it with our simply prepared salmon, brown rice, fresh squash, and stuffed portabello dinner. But as the meal and the evening progressed, it seemed to grow harsh, and flat while the Vino V flourished. It was significantly more flavorful and complex–flat out more enjoyable, begging us to refill our glasses. It had plenty of flavor and character for our meal yet didn’t overwhelm the salmon either. The wine comes across balanced and has a lovely finish.

cooked copper river salmon

The next stage was to fullfill the legacy of the prompt: to taste the wine with various musical offerings and see how that changes the experience of the wine, enhancing or degrading it.

Honestly, it’s hard for me to imagine a wine such as this as ever being distasteful. But we did find that our experience of the wine changed depending on the music. Our musical choices ranged from Bruce Springsteen to Frank Sinatra to a spoken word piece of mine with music I arranged:

The bottom line on this prompt is that we really enjoyed selecting music from our hard drive, clicking play and then tasting the wine and talking about it and the music. This is one experiment we will do again!

Here are some really rough notes of the Vino V pinto noir with various musical pairings as well as the original prompt: Continue reading →

WBW #57: share the story of an inspiring California wine

Lenn Thompson announces Wine Blogging Wednesday #57: California Inspiration here.

Wbw-new Due May 13, host Jeff at Good Grape prompts us to write about a California wine which inspired us:

Thematically, this month is intended to be broad while acting as homage to Robert Mondavi, the 1-year anniversary of his passing on Saturday, May 16.

Because Mondavi was such an inspiration physically, spiritually and philosophically to so many – both in the industry and to consumers, while acting as the forefather of the modern California wine movement, I would like for WBW participants to revisit a California wine that they have enjoyed, or have a particular fond memory of, and tell a story.

Simply, Mondavi promoted an air of inclusiveness, not exclusiveness, conducting many of his business practices around a philosophy of aiding other wineries in knowledge and practices to create a profile for California wine that would rival the world’s finest wines.

The easy route for this theme would be to taste a Mondavi wine, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Mondavi would have preferred an air of openness.  No good is accomplished by a singularity of purpose that acts as an exclusionary barrier for others.

Please go buy or pull from your stash, a bottle of whatever that California wine was that created a memorable chapter in your life, revisit the bottle, and share your story.

Lynn says, “Join us on May 13 as we celebrate the life of Robert Mondavi and the wines and wine industry he helped create.”

This prompt is a no brainer for me: today I am off to find an amazing bottle of Ridge, the winery where I worked in my early 20s and which shaped my palate as surely as working for Mr Peet!

Unfortunately, there’s nothing left from that time in the cellar; I really should have bought more when I left to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, especially since I have a cellar to keep it in. I enjoyed the last bottle in 2003–a 1980 Monte Bello Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon on New Years at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite.

And since this weekend is Mother’s Day, I have the perfect excuse to splurge!! What a great prompt! Watch for a report by next Wednesday!

WBW #55 Round-Up Report by Remy

Wine Blogging WednesdayMarch’s host Remy Charest writes:

Wine Blogging Wednesday 55: North vs South – a bipolar roundup

It’s always fascinating to see the many ways people can interpret a proposition. So what did the participants in the 55th Wine Blogging Wednesday make of this idea of confronting North vs South?

From Michigan Riesling to Tasmania Pinot Noir, from Spanish Garnacha to Tennessee Chambourcin, there sure were a lot of possible pairings (and threesomes, and foursomes) put together by the 33 participants who took up the challenge.

Here’s the Vino V White Hawk syrah I compared with hazyblur’s Adelaide Plaines. For how other wines fared, check out Remy’s Round-Up including other shiraz/syrah pairings and more here.

Rumor has it next month will be KOSHER wines! Find out more here. Whoo hoo!! I just happen to live a few miles away from HERZOG, which makes buckets of kosher wine! Perfect excuse to get over there and do some serious tasting!

WBW #55 syrah/shiraz showdown: CA Vino V 05 & AUS hazyblur 03

wbw-newI’m fortunate to live in the prime grape growing and wine producing region of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties–and, until just recently, just a few miles away from the Grateful Palate warehouse facility in Oxnard (it’s now in Fairfield near Napa).

I’ve long been a fan of Adam Tolmach’s Ojai Vineyard from back in the day when I had a print column “The Art Predator” for a weekly where I reviewed art shows, restaurants and whatever took my fancy, and was paid primarily in trade, mostly food and drink  (I could never say I was a starving artist.)

We had lots of trade at an Ojai restaurant which carried Adam Tolmach’s wines and I was thrilled to get to know many of them by the glass. It seemed that wine maker Tolmach often dropped off the odd bottle or two of wine that wouldn’t find its way onto a typical list or store. In particular, I remember being floored by one of his syrahs back in 1998.

So when I learned that Michael Meagher was a disciple of Adam Tolmach and was making his own wines under the Vino V label (V as in Ventura), that his limited edition wines (600 cases) are carried by restaurants like Campanile, and that his daughter was in my son’s kindergarten class, I wanted to get my hands on some and try it!tn

With this Wine Blogging Wednesday hosted by Remy Charest, pitting north vs south, here was a perfect opportunity to put a tasting together using a Vino V wine. Continue reading →