2021 Mark Ryan Winery Lonely Heart Cabernet Sauvignon

Happy Sunday!  It's been a very busy few weeks for me, with work, the theatre and just trying to keep up with household chores, I haven't had much time to post!  Yesterday I finally picked up my lawnmower from being repaired and today I got to mow for the first time this year as well as digging up a 5-gallon bucket of dandelions!  And now it's time to relax with a glass of wine and a nice dinner.  Tonight, I've opened a bottle of 2021 Mark Ryan Winery Lonely Heart Cabernet Sauvignon.  This wine is a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Quintessence Vineyard in the Red Mountain AVA of Washington.  So, let's see how this wine is tasting!

The wine is an inky black at the center with deep ruby along the edges, just as you'd expect from a pure Cabernet.  A gentle swirl of the glass reveals aromas of black cherry, leather, oak and a hint of marionberry, with undertones of vanilla and tobacco.  The first sip takes your breath away with a lush expression of ripe black fruit, boysenberry, cherry and currant, with a gravelly underbelly.  The tannins are perfectly structured providing for a velvety mouthfeel and a classically smooth dry finish with just a hint of mint at the end. 

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 9, as it's a wine that would pair well with some of the biggest of dishes but keeps it's composure just sipping on the patio.  This wine would be ideal with big steaks, rack of lamb or braised short ribs.  Tonight, I am enjoying this wine with an Asian barbecued ribeye served with grilled leeks, oven roasted fingerling potatoes and maple bacon Brussels sprouts.  Cheers!

2005 Chateau Potensac Medoc

Happy October!  You ever wonder what October is the 10th month, rather than the 8th month?  I wonder about crazy things sometimes, but today I am wondering about the first Saturday of the month, which of course is Cellar Saturday!  Today I've opened a bottle that's been in my cellar for less than a day, the 2005 Chateau Potensac Medoc, which I bought at Costco today!  The Chateau is one of the Cru Bourgeois estates producing Medoc, that lovely Cabernet Merlot combination from the left bank of the Gironde, so let's see how this one grabs me!

The wine is a deep, inky purple at the center, with bright ruby along the edges.  The nose presents aromas of leather, tar, blackberry and kirsch with just the faintest floral overtones.  The taste brings out the gravelly clay soils of the Garonne, but the fruit is still a major player with flavors of black cherry and plum, but the star is the minerality that expresses itself midpalate, really highlighting the terroir of the Chateau.  The finish is divine, with still vibrant tannins after more than a decade, supporting the long, smooth and exceptionally elegant and dry finish, with just a hint of funk at the end.

I am a big Bordeaux fan, and this is a gem that I would easily rate a 9!  This would be ideal with aromatic or hard cheeses, or with a variety of hearty Autumn dishes.  Tonight I am enjoying this with some additional Costco fare, a rare grilled Prime ribcap steak, with some grilled asparagus and oven roasted fingerling potatoes.  The minerality of this wine is a perfect foil to the rich fattiness of the ribcap, my new favorite cut of beef.  Salut!

2007 Labastide Dauzac Margaux

It's sunny and rather warm and humid here today, so it just struck me that this seems like a Margaux sort of afternoon, so I've decided to open a bottle of 2007 Labastide Dauzac Margaux to enjoy.  Now this is a rather young Margaux, though it does modestly exceed my minumum 5-year age requirement to even try a Margaux so we shall see how this goes!  The wine is a classic blend of Merlot (59%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (41%) which should provide some nice structure and backbone to this wine.

When I first opened this wine I was really thirsty, so I couldn't resist trying a bit and the Bordeaux "funk" that is so often present with great wines from the region was quite present, but if you are not a fan of the funk it subsides with a bit of breathing. Now it's been a couple hours, and the color is a generous ruby and the nose is a lovely combination of oak, earthy gravel, and a hint of hard cheese (perhaps the last gasp of funk!).  The taste is a lovely combination of subtle fruit flavors up front, with some blueberry and floral notes that transitions effortlessly to some earthy notes of forest floor (barnyard anyone?) and gravelly notes.  The finish is just pure Bordeaux, with an exceptionally smooth and dry finish that seems to last several minutes.

Overall, I would rate this one a solid 9, as it's a great example of Margaux that's drinking well now, but could easily improve over the next two decades!  I was trying my best to figure out where I got this wine, and then I remembered it was from a tasting we did at Bar Divani in Grand Rapids, and I liked it there and bought a couple bottles for $38, which isn't a steal, but certainly for a good Margaux it's not a bad price!  Tonight I am pairing it with some tacos (come on, who else do you know that would pair Margaux with tacos?), though these are made with some smoked chorizo, roasted poblano peppers and some machego cheese, very simple, but the flavor combinations really bring out the beauty of this wine!  Salut!

2008 Naisi Nero D'Avola Tannat

Tonight I've decided to open an little red blend from Sicily, the 2008 Naisi, a blend of Nero D'Avola (75%) and Tannat (25%), which should make a nice wine to stand up to my seemingly daily steak intake!  I bought this wine a few weeks ago at John Russo's in Grand Rapids, which has a really nice selection of interesting wines, particularly from areas of Italy that you don't see as often, like Sicily.

This wine is a deep purple in the glass, with a good bit of opacity near the center and graduating toward a brighter ruby along the edges.  The nose is an interesting combination of ripe cherry, dark chocolate and leather, with a good bit of smokiness as well.  The taste is nicely fruit forward, with a blast of tart cherry and prune up front, which sounds awful, but actually works quite well.  The fruit transitions to some bitter herbs and gravel midpalate, before the rather tightly wound tannins bring it all together for a smooth, dry finish.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 7.5, it's a very nice wine that's a bit off the beaten path of your everyday red, with a more rustic quality that pairs nicely with red meat and game.  And the cost wasn't outrageous either, I think I bought this bottle on sale for $14.  Tonight I am enjoying this with a rare grilled New York strip and some grilled veggies and steak fries, which offer a perfect balance to the wine.  Cheers!

2011 Macchia "Amorous" Lodi Sangiovese

So tonight I am enjoying two lovely wines from Lodi, California for the Snooth.com Lodi virtual tasting (you can check it out here: http://www.snooth.com/virtual-tasting/video/lodi-virtual-tasting-room/) and the first one I am tasting tonight is the 2011 Macchia "Amorous" Sangiovese.  This will be interesting, since I very partial to Lodi Zinfandels, but I don't think I've tasted any other varietals from Lodi!  Here goes nothing!

The color of this wine is a lighter garnet all around, very similar to many Sangiovese from Italy.  The nose is very interesting, with some tobacco, lovely dry spice notes, black pepper and a hint of fresh mint and lots and lots of oak.  The taste has a wonderful floral quality up front, which eases into some lighter fruit notes and fresh herbs midpalate.  The finish is very smooth, with lovely notes of gravel and mint that is quite dry.  This wine strikes me as a very food friendly wine, as the more subtle flavor profile would tend to compliment a wide variety of dishes, from rich pastas, to grilled salmon to pizza on a Friday night!

Overall, I would rate this one a solid 8, as I think it's a very nice example of a classic Sangiovese that would be great with food, or just sipping on the patio on a summer afternoon. It's also a decent value at about $22, an added plus.  Tonight I am enjoying this wine and it's companion with spicy noodles from a local Thai restaurant, I love Thai food and this wine really holds up nicely to the spice! This would also be great with a lot of pasta dishes, and especially braciole, so long since I've had good braciole!

2005 Chateau Greysac Medoc

So today is April 15, a day of infamy.  In the United States it's tax day, the final deadline for everyone to file their income taxes and pay Uncle Sam for the great services he provides the nation...for people like me, with a more nuanced appreciation of history, this is a day known for one of the greatest sea tragedies in all of history, the sinking of the great White Star liner R.M.S. Titanic in the early hours of the morning of April 15, 1912 in the north Atlantic.  It's been 101 years since that fateful night, and it's become my custom to open a nice bottle of wine in honor of the 1,514 people who lost their lives in the tragedy, as well as the 710 who survived, including the grandmother of a family friend who was just a baby when she was placed on a lifeboat in the freezing weather.

So, in honor of the Titanic, I am opening a bottle of 2005 Chateau Greysac Medoc, which reflects what would have been a rather common wine on board the ship, being a young claret, and this wine being primarily a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.  Surprisingly very little is known about what exact wines the Titanic carried or served, but based on other White Star liners, there would likely have been a few younger "clarets" and more white and sparkling wines on board, as there was some concern that the vibrations from the ship's massive engines would act to dislodge the sediments common on older Bordeaux wines, rendering them unpalatable, if not undrinkable.  So my selection tonight would have been considered a younger claret at the time (after all, in 1912, the main vintage of Champagne on the ship was 1907, so an 8-year-old red wine would be quite young).  And to make it more of an honor, tonight I am drinking from a White Star Line reproduction wine glass that I bought at the Titanic exhibit which is visiting Grand Rapids until this summer.

The wine itself is a deep ruby in the glass, and the nose is just pure Bordeaux, with the classic "Bordeaux funk" as some people have called it, a somewhat musty, combination of black fruit, leather, anise and dried spices that combine create a very memorable aroma of funk!  Though I'll admit, after a bit of air, or some decanting, the funk dissipates and you're left with great aromas of ripe black fruit, leather and anise.  The taste is quite complex, with a rush or ripe fruit, particularly cherries at the front, then we transition to just the slightest bit of cedar and mint midpalate, which goes quite quickly.  The finish is supported by some well structured tannins, as well as some notes of gravel and earth in the long, exceptionally dry finish.

Overall I would rate this wine a solid 8, as it's a nice example of the style and drinking quite nicely right now, and I bought this one a few years ago for only $14, making it a solid value Bordeaux.  Tonight I am pairing this with some grilled flank steak tacos with black beans, but it would go very well with a broad spectrum of grilled, marinated meats, or some nice roast lamb or braised short ribs.  So there you have it, my toast to honor a horrible date in history!

2009 Alexandria Nicole Quarry Butte

As we finish up the first week of Washington Wine Month, I've decided to try a new wine from a producer that I've not tried before, the 2009 Quarry Butte Red Wine from Alexandria Nicole Cellars.  This red blend was produced from Alexandria Nicole's estate vineyard, Destiny Ridge, which used to be known as Quarry Butte, located high on the bluffs of the Horse Heaven Hills overlooking the Columbia River.  The wine itself is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (54%), Merlot (19%), Syrah (17%), Malbec (6%) and Petit Verdot (4%), making this a classic red blend for which the Columbia Valley has become famous.

The wine is a rich, deep ruby color in the glass, with a nose that exhibits scents of ripe red fruit, blackberries, cherries and plums, along with a hint of vanilla, smoke and limestone.  The taste is at once black fruit dominated, but that is quickly overwhelmed by the luscious, velvety mouthfeel of your first sip.  The fruit transitions to some tart notes midpalate, along with just a hint of wild mint and gravel, giving some nice earth notes to balance it out.  The finish is quite long and dry, as the bright tannins provide ample support, and a taste that seems to last until you're ready for your next sip.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 8, it has a lot going for it, and it's a descent value but not a screaming bargain at the $23 I paid for it.  Not for your everyday house red, but one for an occasion here and there.  Tonight I am pairing this with some lovely butternut squash ravioli topped with four cheese alfredo sauce, and an arugula salad topped with a nice aged balsamic.  Not your classic red wine pairing, but one that I think works nicely, matching the tartness and rich fruit of the wine, with the rich starch and cheese of the ravioli and sauce.  Cin cin!

2006 Féraud-Brunel Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Tonight, to celebrate the coming of 2013 and the U.S. going over the "fiscal cliff," I decided to put my wine selection for the evening to a vote of my Facebook friends, and they didn't let me down, choosing the 2006 Féraud-Brunel Châteauneuf-du-Pape, a wonderful GSM blend to end my 2012 and welcome the new year!  Now since I gave everyone until 8:00 pm to vote, I just opened this bottle and have had no time to decant, so I've poured this glass through my aerating pourer for better effect, but it's probably advisable to let this wine breathe a bit if you have time.

The wine in the glass is a deep garnet color, about what you'd expect from a nice CdP.   The nose is very mellow, almost surprisingly so, with hints of lovely fruit, black currant, blueberry, some interesting spice notes intermingled with rose petals and the faintest bit of barnyard.  The taste is just sublime, with lovely ripe fruits bursting forth on the tongue, blueberry, ripe plum and a hint of boysenberry, transforming into some lovely jammy notes midpalate balanced with some earthy minerality.  The tannins play well creating a long, smooth finish, with lovely flavors or dark chocolate and gravel.  For a rather young wine, this one really is drinking quite well right now!

Overall, I would rate this one a solid 8.5, it's a very nice example of a Châteauneuf-du-Pape that I found at a local supermarket for under $30 about a year ago.  Unfortunately it's 8:30 pm on New Year's Eve, so I'm just enjoying this wine seulement ce soir, but it would pair quite nicely with a variety of spicy dishes, or grilled meats, but I could also see it going very well with a broad array of seafood.  If you can find a bottle, I would highly recommend it!  Bon Année! 

2009 L'Ecole No. 41 Perigee

You know, sometimes you just need to take a step back and smell the roses, or the bouquet on a great glass of wine as the case may be!  It's been a long few weeks of lots of hours at work, and unfortunately those weeks seem to be dragging into months and I could use a break.  Of course with no break on the horizon, I'll take the next best thing, a great bottle of wine.  And tonight we have one of the great ones from my favorite winery of all time, L'Ecole No. 41 and their 30th anniversary edition of the Perigee.  The grapes for the Perigee blend come from the acclaimed Seven Hills Vineyard, of which L'Ecole is a partner, originally planted in 1981, it is Certified Sustainable and Salmon Safe.

The wine itself is a classic Bordeaux style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (64%), Merlot (16%), Cabernet Franc (12%), Malbec (4%) and Petit Verdot (4%).  The color in the glass is a rich garnet and the nose brings forth notes of leather, oak and earthy spice, the type of aromas that cause you to enter a state of deep relaxation (at least they do that to me anyway!).  The taste is at once fruity and earthy, with tastes of ripe berries and plums washing over your palate, then giving way to cedar and chalky gravel.  The tannins as a bit more subdued than I've noticed on previous vintages, giving rise to a smooth, deliciously dry finish.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 9, but I'll freely admit my bias towards my favorite winery (but really, what could that possible add, a point?  Half a point?  Come on).  I also purchased more than my usual share of the 1,210 cases of Perigee produced this year since the winery has offered a special anniversary price that marks the price down from the $49 retail price to $41, and even further, to less than $35 when you add in the wine club and case discounts!  Tonight I am enjoying this wine on a warm fall evening on the patio as I get ready to grill a nice thick New York strip, some oven roasted fingerling potatoes and a salad, as this wine is the perfect accompaniment to a seared steak!  YUM!

2011 Honoro Vera Garnacha

You know, I just don't drink enough Spanish wines.  I know they are having loads of troubles over there, so I figured they make wonderful wines and I should help out by buying a bottle or two!  In this case, it's the 2011 Honoro Vera Garnacha, which is the Spanish version of Grenache, a grape from the south of France that I've taken quite a fancy to in recent months.  This wine comes from the city of Calatayud, which lies just to the southwest of the French border in the Sistema Iberico mountain range, roughly equidistant from the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts.

The wine itself is a very deep purple color in the glass, trending to more ruby color along the edges.  The nose is a very pleasant combination of sweet fruit scents with a combination of strawberries, sweet cherries and plums with just the faintest hint of cedar and spices.  The first taste brings some surprising smokiness and gravel which are enveloped by the fruit flavors, which present themselves as very jammy at first, flavors of ripe cherries and blueberries, which transition to rich plums laced with exotic spices that seem almost Oriental.  The young tannins are surprisingly well integrated leading to a lovely smooth finish.

Overall I would rate this wine a solid 7.5 as it's really a lovely, fruit forward example of the varietal that makes it wonderfully food friendly, plus it was a great value at only $8!  Tonight I am pairing it with some tortilla crusted tilapia, a variety of fingerling potatoes and some steamed asparagus, and I really love the way the fruit in the wine plays off the spice of the fish, very lively!  So try a lovely Spanish red wine if you have the opportunity!

2009 Famiglia Pasqua Passimento Veneto

So tonight I feel like having a little Italian, so why not open a bottle of our October wine club selection?  The 2009 Famiglia Pasqua Passimento Veneto, a wine from the far north of Italy, where the cuisine tends more toward rich risotto and polenta dishes.  Now, for those of you familiar with Amarone, this wine is very similar to the Valpolicella Ripasso, which is the second pressing of the dried Corvina grapes used to make Amarone.  The Pasqua family named this wine "Passimento" as they first dry the Corvina grapes before pressing them, creating a much more concentrated and rich flavor.  Then, unlike Amarone or Valpolicella Ripasso, they blend the first pressing of the dried Corvina grapes with Croatina, Merlot and several other local varieties of grapes from Verona that are not dried, resulting in a unique blend that has the richness of an Amarone, but is much more approachable for everyday drinking.

The color of this wine is a deep ruby in the glass, and the nose portrays a richness, with concentrated scents of blackberry and dried figs, leather and rose petals.  There's a sweetness in the nose that's somewhat deceiving, as this is by no means a sweet wine.  The taste starts with some strong fruit notes, ripe red berries and plums, transitioning to a gravelly taste reminiscent of some wonderful Bordeaux, along with dry herbs and just the faintest hint of mint.  The finish is somewhat tight, as the tannins are still developing, yet still providing for a smooth, dry finish.

As for pairings, this wine would pair well with a variety of rich, northern Italian dishes, and tonight I enjoyed it with some penne alla vodka, and the tightness of the tannins played against the richness of the cream in the sauce, while the rich fruit flavor of the wine balanced out the spice of the tomatoes in the sauce.  Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 8, as it's really a lovely everyday version of Amarone, maybe an Amarone light, but at a price that won't make you cringe.  I found this one at my local wine merchant for a tasting for only $14!  So if you have the opportunity, pick some up and enjoy it with a mushroom risotto!

2009 Château Sigognac Medoc

It's a Wednesday evening, so it must be time to open a bottle of wine to celebrate "hump day"!  Tonight I've decided to open a lovely bottle of Bordeaux from the exceptionally hyped 2009 vintage, the Château Sigognac Medoc!

You know how I love a nice Bordeaux, and the characteristics of a lovely Medoc really bring my mind back to my printemps au Paris!  This wine is a lovely, deep ruby color in the glass, and the nose presents aromas of licorice, spices and a hint of gravelly limestone, but there's also something warm and syrupy that I can't quite place.  The taste is classic Medoc, with the faintest hint of fruit at the outset, quickly transitioning to a gravelly earthiness midpalate before the delightfully structured tannins leave you with a long, bone dry finish.

Tonight I am just enjoying this wine with my appetizers of sliced ripe tomatoes with 25-year balsamic and some aged cheeses as I think about what to have for dinner (sorry for my lack of pairing recommendations!) but I think this wine would pair quite nicely with a variety of steaks, or perhaps some lighter pasta dishes with grilled seafood, even though I know that might sound wierd to some of you!  Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 8, though it might have gone higher but it was somewhat expensive at $17, marked down from the normal price of $22.  In any case, I'll enjoy this one all evening long!

2007 Ravenswood Dickerson Napa Valley Zinfandel

Well, kids are back in school and football is on TV all afternoon on Sundays, so that can mean only one thing, summer is on its way out and fall is coming into its own.  So as a celebration of the last gasp of summer, today I decide to have a little barbecue, and what could possibly go better with barbecue than a lovely zinfandel?

So with my lovely meal, I've cracked open a bottle of 2007 Ravenswood Dickerson Napa Valley Zinfandel, since the rich fruit flavor and smokiness of a good zin really pairs well with barbecue of all kinds!  Now this wine is part of a series of wonderful single-vineyard zinfandels that Ravenswood produces, including the Pickberry, Teldeschi and Barricia zinfandels.  And of course you know I'm a big fan of just about anything Ravenswood does!

This wine has a lovely ruby color in the glass, lighter around the edges and deeper toward the center.  The nose is a lovely combination of leather, limestone, oak and just a hint of ripe berries.  The taste is very fruit forward and characteristically jammy, but not is a super sweet grape jam sort of way.  It has lovely fruit that doesn't make you think you just drank kool-aid, instead this wine seems to be showing a lot of respect to the ripe fruit.  The fruit gives way to some wonderful minerality and spice midpalate, with hints of gravel and baking spice.  In the end, the delicate tannins provide for a long, smooth, supple finish that makes you want to take your time with this wine.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 8.5, as it's really one of the nicest zins I've had in quite a while!  I bought just one bottle of this a couple years ago, on clearance sale at Meijer of all places, so the price was a real bargain at under $16, and now I wish I'd bought more!  And what sort of end of summer barbecue am I enjoying this with?  Glad you asked, a lovely rack of slow cooked barbecued spare ribs, along with some grilled corn, baked beans, corn muffins and broccoli salad, everything you need for a summer meal out in the yard!

2011 L'Ecole No. 41 Grenache Rose

So tonight is another one of those hot summer evenings that we've been having lately, where you really just want to hide in the air conditioning, hoping for cooler days!  Well, at least it's still Sunday, and that means Sunday dinner and a wonderful wine to accompany it!

So tonight I've decided to go retro with my Sunday dinner and make Seafood Newburg, a wonderful dish with a heavy cream sauce with lots of sherry (we never seem to cook with sherry anymore, what a shame), shallots and paprika along with scallops and shrimp, tossed in linguine (I went non traditional tonight as I couldn't bring myself to light the oven and make the puff pastries!).  So, what better wine to enjoy with my evening meal than a lovely rose, and tonight's comes from my all time favorite winery, L'Ecole No. 41 of Walla Walla.

The wine itself it s a lovely pink hue in the glass with lovely aromas of citrus, green apple and rose petals.  The taste is marvelous, with some sweet berry fruit at the outset, giving way to some spice and orange midpalate.  The tannins are very subdued, leading to a long, somewhat gravelly finish that is simply superb.

Now for any of you who have read my blog, you know that I am mainly a red wine sort of guy, but I've been enjoying some roses in the heat of this awful summer.  This is by far my favorite rose of all that I've sampled, as it is fresh, crisp, dry and speaks to what a traditional Grenache should be.  Overall, I would rate this one a solid 8.5, and by rights it should be a 9 but I can't bring myself to give a rating that high for a non-red wine!  In any case, it's a wonderful wine, that I'd be happy to sip all evening as the sun sets and the temperature finally gets back below 90!  Unfortunately it's now sold out at the winery, which I guess you could expect with only 190 cases produced, but I still have a few bottles of the 2011, as well as the 2009 and 2010 to enjoy, so if you can find this one, jump on it!