2019 Mark Ryan Flowerhead Rosé

Happy Wine Wednesday!  It's somewhat sweltering here today with a high of 89° here today, so since it feels like summer, it must be time for rosé!  Tonight I've opened a nice bottle of rosé that I received as a gift with my most recent wine club shipment from Mark Ryan Winery, the 2019 Flowerhead Rosé!  This wine is a blend of Sangiovese, Syrah and and Grenache, so let's see how this preview of summer tastes!

The wine is a very pale peach color in the glass, a very light rose in color.  The nose is chock full of summer fruit, apple, peach, melon and a hint of citrus over some interesting mineral undertones.  The taste is surprisingly tropical up front, with flavors of mango and melon bursting through before transitioning to notes of grapefruit with modest acidity midpalate.  The finish is crisp and bright, with lingering tropical fruit notes.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 8.5, as it's an ideal breath of summer that I could see myself sipping on the patio in the late evening sun.  This wine would pair well with a variety of summer dishes, from beet and goat cheese salad, to burgers on the grill.  Tonight I am enjoying this wine with a steamed lobster tail with drawn butter, wild rice and steamed sugar snap peas.  Cheers!

2016 Domaine La Sangliere Cotes de Provence Rose

Well, here it is, my last gasp of summer!  As the temperatures have been coming down, with highs only in the 60s and 70s and lows reaching into the 40s, I thought I needed one last bit of summer before the leaves start falling in earnest.  So today I've opened a bottle of 2016 Domaine La Sangliere Cotes de Provence Rose!  I saw this wine at Costco a few weeks ago and was fascinated by the blend of Cinsault (70%) and Grenache (30%) and the price was such that I couldn't resist getting a bottle even though it was late in the rose season, so let's see how this one tastes.

The wine is a lovely peach color in the glass.  The nose is a lovely combination of peach, strawberry, white floral notes and some minerality.  The taste is somewhat mellow when compared to the nose, with subdued flavors of citrus, mango and strawberry that transitions to some warm mineral notes midpalate.  This wine displays the classic French stealth finish, with mild acidity and incredible dryness that is feels like there wasn't a finish at all.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 7.5, as it's not a spectacular rose, but one that would be ideal with a variety of food on the patio during the summer.  It was also a wonderful value at just $8!  This wine would be ideal for summer salads, or a variety of seafood, which is handy since I'm enjoying this wine with my end of summer crab boil, featuring Alaskan king crab legs, corn on the cob and red potatoes with parsley and butter, the kind if dinner that you never notice you've just eaten a stick of butter!  Cheers!

Cogdal Vineyards Little Man Winery Big Lake Red Table Wine

What an eventful day!  My uncle and cousin were doing a Midwest road trip and decided to come for a visit last night and stayed for breakfast and church before they went off to visit some other relatives in central Indiana.  After they left, I decided to go to the outlet mall and then up to Lake Michigan for the afternoon, mainly to restock my olive oil and aged balsamic from the Olive Cart in South Haven, Michigan.  Which brings me to the wine I've decided to open tonight, the non-vintage Cogdal Vineyards "Little Man Winery" Big Lake Red Wine, after seeing the big lake this afternoon, how could I not open a Big Lake Red?  So let's see how this one tastes!

The wine is somewhat lighter in color, a bit of a cross between Pinot Noir and a Merlot, with nice clarity.  The nose presents aromas of green grass, mint and a hint of pipe tobacco.  The taste is quite nice, with a rush of ripe black fruit up front, blackberry, black cherry and kirsch that transition to some warm spice notes midpalate.  The finish is somewhat subdued, with mild acidity and mellow tannins supporting a smooth dry finish.

My view of the big lake in Saint Joseph, Michigan!

Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a big fan of my local red wines, as so much of it lacks depth or more often is just a sweet cherry fruit bomb, but having visited this winery, they have made some good progress with nice dry red wines and this one is no exception, so I'd rate it a solid 8.  An easy drinking red blend like this should be easy to pair with a variety of dishes, but as always I had to make it challenging, so tonight I'm enjoying this wine with panko crusted pork chops with some pasta and fresh green beans.  The subdued fruit and mild acidity of this wine makes it a prime target for pork, cheers!

2015 Forgeron Rose of Sangiovese

Happy Sunday!  Boy it sure feels like summer here now, I was mowing the grass today and was sweating like mad as it reached the upper-80s today!  Hot is the perfect weather for a summer favorite, rose!  Today I've decided to open a bottle of our office wine club selection for June, the 2015 Forgeron Rose of Sangiovese from the Walla Walla Valley of Washington!  I reviewed the 2014 vintage (you can see that here) so let's see how the 2015 stacks up!

The wine is a very light peach color, perfect for a dry rose for summer!  The nose is a lovely combination of grapefruit, strawberry and orange blossom notes, with just a bit of minerality in the background.  The taste is a lovely rush of sweet strawberry and tropical fruit up front that transitions to some wonderful floral notes midpalate.  The finish is crisp, with mild acidity and a smooth, very dry ending.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 8.5, as it's one of my favorite roses for summer, perfect for sipping on the patio on a warm evening light tonight.  This wine would pair well with a variety of summer fare, from caprese salad to lighter fish dishes, but tonight I am enjoying this wine with some pan seared sea scallops along with some bucatini tossed with broccoli rabe sauteed with garlic and olive oil topped with a bit of shaved parmesan.  Sante!

2011 Dona Paula Estate Torrontes

Tonight I have a special treat, a Snooth virtual tasting of wines from the Dona Paula Estate in Argentina!  I really have to offer a special word of appreciation and a hearty thank you to Snooth and Dona Paula Estate for providing me with some lovely samples to try this evening, the 2011 Torrontes and the 2011 Malbec (which I will review on a separate posting tomorrow)!  Now the interesting thing is that the Torrontes is a white wine, so I think this might actually be the first white wine review on my blog, and it's a special one given it's source, the Valle de Cafayate in Salta.  This is special to me since I have long dreamt of retiring in the Cafayate near Salta in Argentina, home of beautiful vineyards and lovely cattle ranches, and farms with ample beautiful and healthy produce to enjoy.  Great wine and great steak, what more could you want in retirement?

So back to the wine.  I am so out of my depth with white wines I had to look up on Google what sort of grape this is, and I found that it's native to Argentina and typically displays some smooth mouthfeel and mild acidity with aromatics of peach and apricot.  And sure enough, there are some lovely floral notes to this wine, and some earthy notes that just bring to mind riding on horseback through the mountains.  The taste is quite refreshing, mildly acidic, and displays wonderful notes of peach, citrus and some earth notes that are mildly metallic, a taste reminiscent of copper and rustic forest.  The finish is very nice and crisp, perfect for a summer afternoon, and very dry, a white wine that I could definitely get to know and like!

Overall I would rate this wine a solid 7.5, as I think it's such a pleasant departure from the usual, sweeter, citrus dominated white wines I've tried in the past.  It strikes me that this could be an ideal white wine for us red wine drinkers.  Although I'm just having this with some antipasti tonight, I could see this going very well with some bright Mexican dishes, fish tacos or some fresh salsa with carne asada and a squeeze of lime, or the traditional Argentine pairing with empanadas.  So yummy!

2012 2 Copas Spanish Red Blend

So a week or two ago I was at my favorite local wine shop, G. B. Russo's and as they usually do on Saturdays they had a small tasting of three or four wines, and of course how could I resist?  And one of the wines they were tasting was a 2 Copas, a label I've tried before and it was always a pretty descent value wine.  But this one was different, as it was a wine from Spain, so why not try it?  I'm glad I did, because I wasn't disappointed and it was as good or better value than I remembered!

The wine is a nice deep ruby color in the glass, suggesting it might be full of ripe fruit, and it is!  The nose is chock full of rich ripe fruit, blackberries, cherries, plum and cassis overlayed with just a hint of leather and cedar (enough to make you think about it!).  Despite the distinct jammy character of the nose, the taste takes a different direction.  There is great ripe fruit up front, with some lovely notes of plum, cherry and anise, but the fruit transitions effortlessly to some green grass and minerality midpalate.  The finish is surprisingly nice, with some tight tannins and mild acidity that accents the wonderfully dry finish.  It's really a best of both worlds sort of wine, very fruity up front yet still with a nice dry finish that you don't even notice unless you're thinking about it.

Overall I would rate this wine a solid 8, as it's not so much a spectacular Spanish red as it is a good Spanish red at a spectacular value!  I bought this wine for just under $6 including tax!  Tonight I am enjoying this wine with a last gasp of summer meal, a rare grilled Angus T-bone (though to be fair, looking at the filet this is really a porterhouse), baked heirloom potato and some grilled baby carrots (that I grew myself) and some grilled brussels sprouts that I picked up at a farm stand yesterday in South Haven.  Those grilled veggies really married the Autumn with the steak of Summer, which is a great testament to this wine.  It would be great with a summer dinner, but it could be fabulous with turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberries and all the trimmings of the holidays which are fast approaching!  Cheers!

2010 14 Hands Hot to Trot Columbia Valley Red

So yes, I know it's March Madness, and the day before St. Patrick's Day (not a stellar wine holiday I must say), but you know what?  It's still March and that means it's still Washington Wine Month!  So I went out today to a local merchant near my office called Grand Central Market to find an interesting bottle, as I recall last year they had a nice selection of Washington Wines.  Well in the last year, they've remodeled the store and drastically cut down the size of their wine selection, but fortunately they still had a selection of 6 or 7 Washington reds, so I wasn't disappointed.

There was a nice bottle of Powers Cabernet, and some Columbia Crest which I've never been all that impressed with.  In the end it came down to two, one was a red blend from the Mt. Rainier area, which I'm not as familiar with, and it had a screw cap (you know how I am not a fan of screw caps!). Then there was a familiar label of the 14 Hands Winery, I've had their Cabernet a few times and it always was a nice everyday drinking wine, at a very good price.  This bottle was a red blend that I wasn't familiar with, but I trust the winery, and I do love nice red blends, so what the heck, give it a try.

The wine is a blend, primarily of Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon, with a few other varietals added for good measure.  The wine itself has a garnet color with very little opacity, suggesting a lighter style wine, which is perfect on what ended up being a record 80-degree day!  The nose had hints of leather, vanilla and candied apple, with a bit of a smoky edge to it.  The taste is very fruit forward, with plenty of ripe cherries, plums and blackberry, and a bit of sweetness that gets right to the edge of too sweet, but then pulls you back with the mellow tannins that are just enough to give you that twang back from the brink of sweet preserves.  The tannins are also just enough to give the wine a clean, crisp finish.

Overall, I would rate this wine a 7, given that it's still pretty young and likely to develop further over the next year or two, and the price isn't bad either, I found this bottle for $11.  I had a glass tonight with some simple pasta and red sauce, but I don't really envision this to be a food wine, rather it's an ideal wine for enjoying a glass or three on the patio on a mild spring or summer evening, watching the sun set and putting a relaxing finish on a hard day.  Speaking of which, it's time for me to relax and watch some hoops!

2008 Nine Hats Columbia Valley Red Wine

This is another of our wines from our "Best of" wine tasting, the 2008 Nine Hats Columbia Valley Red Wine.  Washington is great at producing wonderful Bordeaux-style blends, and this is an interesting use of excess grapes from other blends in the Walla Walla/Columbia Valley region.  A product of Long Shadows Winery in Walla Walla, this wine is a blend of excess wines used in their signature wine blends from nine winemakers, hence "Nine Hats."

The wine itself is a blend of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, 10% Petit Verdot and 2% Malbec, creating an interesting and smooth wine.  The wine exhibits a deep purple color in the glass with a good structure.  On the nose, it exhibits aromas of the forest, dominated by cedar, moss and tobacco with just the slightest floral hint.  The taste is somewhat abrupt when compared to some of the more mature wines like the Margaux or Brunello we tasted, but on it's own, this wine holds its own.  It's very fruit forward, with flavors of blackberry and cherry, with a mild acidity that holds any sweetness in check.  There is a spicy undertone of pepper and herbs.  The velvety tannins make for a luscious mouthfeel and a long, smooth finish.

For pairings, this wine would be ideal with a grilled steak, or perhaps a classic pot roast with all the classic roasted veggies.  Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 7.5, with room for improvement as the wine matures.  The 2008 Nine Hats Columbia Valley Red Wine would make a great everyday wine, particularly given the price under $20.  I bought this one in a variety pack of wines from my friends at Esquin Wine Sellers out of Seattle, so it might not be available where you live.  If you have an opportunity to buy a bottle, you should certainly try it!