Avalon CAB Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 (about $11)

About the Wine:  My stepfather was a mechanic who worked on only one kind of car, and it was a kind that had not been made in years.  His philosophy was simple: no surprises.  He knew exactly what to expect from every vehicle he dealt with.  Avalon follows a similar philosophy.  They make only Cabernet Sauvignon.  CAB is their entry level offering.  Having seen many other producers try and fail to branch out, and also having seen the success of places like Burgundy and Barolo that limit their offerings, I have to say that this philosophy has its merits.

About THIS Wine:  In the glass it is ruby red.  It is lighter and clearer than I would expect from a California Cab.  The nose is very tight at first, which is actually a good sign for such a young Cabernet.  After some swirling, notes of oak and mushroom come through on the nose and contrast with a bright streak of cherry.  The palate is reserved, I would say elegant for a wine at this price.  It has a good but not bracing tannin structure and red licorice quality throughout.

Drinking This Wine:  It is subtle enough to be a sipping wine, which is unusual for a cab.  It would do well with spicy Italian sausage or a pork steak.

Overall Impression:  I'm impressed.  I was expending a budget fruit bomb and got something completely out its league in terms of it price.  This wine is a steal.

Tomaiolo Toscana 2010 (about $12)

About the Wine:  Tomaiolo is a fairly well known brand among those who cannot afford to drink things that aren't Tomaiolo.  I don't have anything against the brand, I have just never found their wines all that inspiring.  The lack of any geographical distinction more specific than Tuscany is not encouraging, but I've been pleasantly surprised before.

About THIS Wine:  The blend is mostly Sangiovese and it is a little darker than a Sangiovese should be, but it is a blend.  The nose is pretty subtle.  There is some red fruit and smoke there but nothing exactly leaps out.  The palate and finish are both very dry with stewed fruit, especially prune, dominant.

Drinking This Wine:  Spaghetti and red sauce or a something like a pork steak or maybe barbecue ribs would do well.  It definitely wants some food.

Overall Impression:  I was not blown away and I was not expecting to be.  The wine is essentially varietally correct and it is pleasant enough.  It is reasonable for the price.

Baronie Coraldo Terre Siciliane 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon (about $12)

About the Wine:  The Mediterranean has become a new "it" place for value wine.  Greece and Sicily both have interesting native varietals.  They, along with Israel, have the kind of coastal influenced hot climate that has allowed California to produce accessible versions of international varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. 

About THIS Wine:  Stony and vegetable notes present on the nose.  The palate is dense, almost chewy with some heavy medicinal notes toward the finish.  The finish is very dry and tannic, which is not surprising for such a young Cab.  The label informs me that this was grown in the Southwest of Sicily.  I don't know that much about the climate there but I do know this shows some remarkable similarities to Cab from the Negev Desert in Israel.

Drinking This Wine:  If you're a vegetarian, then you will never find a paring for this wine.  Vegetarians are what drinkers of this wine eat.  It needs a big cut of juicy red meat. 

Overall Impression:  This is an interesting wine and it is damn good.  At this price it is an absolute steal.

Angeline Pinot Noir 2013 (about $12)

About the Wine:  I bought this without knowing much about the wine.   A customer had asked for it, so when I saw it at another wine shop I grabbed it.  The price point spoke to me as much as professional curiosity did.

About THIS Wine:  It presents a really lovely garnet color in the glass.  Dark fruit is abundant but not overbearing on the nose.  The palate is plush and satisfying but not heavy.  A note of blackberry jam lingers in the finish.

Drinking This Wine:  This is a good summer sipping wine.  It would also do well with roasted pork or turkey.  It's a little too big for chicken or fish.

Overall Impression:  This wine is a really nice find and I do recommend it.  At this price it is a good value.

Oak Ridge Vineyard OZV Old Zinfandel Vines 2012 (About $14)

About the Wine:  I reviewed the 2009 vintage of this a few years ago.  That was a difficult vintage in California but I liked the wine.  2012 is a critically acclaimed vintage but one that has never been a personal favorite.  California reds from that year have an extracted, cola quality that is not all that pleasant to someone looking for something that tastes like wine and not soda.

About THIS Wine:  The dreaded cola notes are definitely there on the nose.  But so is a fair amount of dark fruit.  The palate has a blend of cola and mocha qualities that linger in a decent finish.  It's a little sweeter than I would like for it be.  It is not unpleasant, but it does taste like an impending hangover.  The cola quality does recede a bit when the wine breaths.

Drinking This Wine:  You could serve this lightly chilled or even make a sangria out of it.  It's hard to really see it as a dinner wine.

Overall Impression:  As much I would love to love this wine, the winemaker just did not overcome the less desirable qualities of the vintage.  This wine should not top ten dollars and is therefore overpriced.

Ninety Plus (90+) Old Vine Malbec Lot 23 2014 (bout $12)

About the Wine:  90+ is a concept brand that is essentially rebottlings of wines that have gotten ninety or better ratings.  They do not specify what vineyard the wine is from, nor who rated it.  It makes it an iffy proposition because there is no consistent style or wine making philosophy.  That said, if you're looking for a value then there are definitely worse ways to do it.  Wine prices tend to increase with their ratings.  I had forgotten it, but I actually rated their 2010 Malbec a few years ago here.

About THIS Wine:  It is nearly opaque in the glass with a dark purple rim.  Black fruit and spice are prominent on the nose.  It does not have the weight of a Syrah, but it has many of the same notes.  The palate is heavy with a firm, tannic finishing.  Malbec is not generally an aging grape, especially at this price, but this could do with a few more years.

Drinking This Wine:  After a little air it will make a good pairing with a lighter red meat dish.  Some kind of grilled beef without any heavy sauce would work.

Overall Impression:  Per the brand's promise, the wine delivers well above its price point.  This is a good value.

Carmel Road Monterey Pinot Noir 2013 (about $20)

 

About the Wine:  Monterey is not known for its wine, which is a bit of a shame.  The coastal climate tends to negate the heat of California and the wines are generally affordable.  I was actually surprised to see a Monterey wine at this price.  Maybe the secret is out.  If so, I would like to go on record that I liked Monterey before it was cool.

About THIS Wine:  It is ruby red and fairly clear in the glass.  The nose presents an earthy quality similar to the Pinots of Sonoma.  Fruit is present on the palate, but is tempered by the earthy character of the wine.  It has a nice, dry finish.  The elements are all there and they are all in balance.  It's a classy bottle.

Drinking This Wine:  I selected pork steak as a pairing because that's what I happen to have in my fridge tonight.  That is a happy accident.  The wine is a little too big for turkey, chicken, or fish, which are my other go to Pinot parings.  It is definitely a food wine.

Overall Impression:  I rarely say this about a bottle twenty or higher, but at $20 a bottle this a really good value.

Peirano Estate Petite Sirah 2012 (About $16)

About the Wine:  2012 was a great vintage in California and I have always loved the Petite Sirahs of Lodi so it is hard to imagine that this will be a miss.  I do not really know the producer, so I did extensive research that consisted of reading the back of the bottle.  According to that, this winery is in its sixth generation within the same family and has been in business since 1895.  Perhaps this is another of Lodi's many hidden gems.

About THIS Wine:  It is dark as night in the glass with a dark purple rim.  Raisin and fig notes are prominent on the nose.  The palate is surprisingly reticent.  That is an unusual characteristic for the appellation.  After a few minutes, and no small amount of impatient swirling, the wine reveals a luxurious dark fruit palate with a fairly dry finish.

Drinking This Wine:  Normally, I consider Petite Sirah a quaffing wine but this one has some tannin and body that make it a promising paring with roasted ham or chicken.

Overall Impression:  I have always been a sucker for Lodi and this wine is no exception.  That said, it does present some surprisingly Old World characteristics that only raise my estimation of it.  And that is why I think it is an absolute steal for this price.

In Pursuit of Average

I recently had the pleasure of attending a Champagne dinner hosted by Veuve Clicquot.  That house is one of the oldest in Champagne.  Madame Clicquot was one of the early innovators credited with developing and marketing Champagne before the region rose to its current prominence.  Her influence was so great that the company still labels their best vintage cuvee after her nickname, “La Grande Dame.”  Their Yellow Label Champagne is probably the most popular Champagne in the U.S. and maybe the world.  Lovers of small productions, known as “Grower Champagnes” lament what they perceive as a decline in quality of the Veuve in favor of mass production as well as the way the large brands can push the smaller productions out of the market.

The fascination runs both ways.  The representative from Veuve was interested in the appeal of the smaller productions.  And they do have a distinct appeal.  Each small producer offers up their own style based on the grapes available, personal taste of the producer, and the limitations they face in terms of staffing and equipment.  The distinction extends beyond Champagne and into the wider wine world.  A vineyard can produce only so much wine.  After that a producer can choose to start making more labels, one for each source that the grapes came from.  That is what everyone complains about in regard to the producers of Burgundy.  Another option is to sort of pile all of the sourced grapes together into one bottling.  That is what everyone complains about in regard to California.  Just kidding.  There is a lot more to complain about in regard to both of those places.

It is a genuine quandary for a producer.  Single vineyard bottlings invariably leave one bottling in the group lot that just will not sell (there’s always one, just one if you’re lucky) and also puts the producer at risk of creating products that compete with each other.  The more generalized route makes it nearly impossible to produce a truly distinctive product.

Veuve Clicquot has taken an interesting approach.  Their outfit is perfectionist, but it is perfectionism in pursuit of consistency over time.   Instead of making the best non-vintage Brut in every batch they strive to make every batch taste like the one before and after.  They sacrifice the peaks to avoid the valleys.  The approach has clearly paid off for them.  I am personally a fan of Piper Heidsieck NV (which to be clear, is a mass market product in and of itself) but I have liked it substantially better in some cuvees than others.  The one I tasted most recently was very good and I am optimistic for future cuvees, but there is no way to really know until they are tasted.  Krug is either the best or the worst for this, depending on your view.  Their NV Bruts are awesome, but no two are the same and they don't really try to make them so.  

Yellow Label is Yellow Label, always.  That may not make it valuable to a Champagne enthusiast but it does make it a beverage of choice for corporate gifts, business dinners, and people who want to grab their bottle and go rather than having a half hour conversation with a store clerk about which Champagne to buy.  It may not be everyone’s favorite, but it is the one that everyone can agree on.  It also bears mentioning that while many people have no idea what Burgundy or Bordeaux are, everyone seems to know Champagne.  That notoriety owes something to a uniform approach and Yellow Label is the embodiment of that.

If any purveyor of Grower Champagne wants to send me a few bottles to rate against the Yellow Label, please let me know.  Tasting Champagne is an onerous burden, but one I will assume for the greater good.

Ixsir Altitudes 2010 (About $16)

About the Wine: Lebanon has never gained much of a reputation as wine country.  The tiny nation's troubled history has made development difficult and it's one noted house, Chateau Musar, is so wildly inconsistent in style that it has struggled to develop a following.

About THIS Wine:  The wine is 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Caladoc, a varietal I have never heard of, 22% Syrah, an 17% Tempranillo.  The wine is very dark, almost black in the glass with a dark purple rim.  Wood, smoke, and dark fruit present on a very dense nose.  This is one of the driest wines I have ever tasted.  It is not bracingly tannic nor is it all that heavy.  It is just remarkably dry.  Upon doing a little reading, I discovered that Caladoc is a Malbec/Grenache hybrid that is noted for how dry it is.

Drinking This Wine:  It is definitely a food wine.  It's not big enough for steak but a hearty stew or even something like jambalaya could work if it's not too spicy.

Overall Impression:  It is a good, if esoteric wine.  Bordeaux in the same style go for a lot more, so I will say that this is good for the price.