A Story in Pictures

By way of explanation, the other night we were getting ready to sit down to dinner, and I wanted to open something a little extra special. I grabbed our last bottle of 2002 Kunde Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County (more on that later).

After pulling a certain (large) number of corks, I give as much thought to it as I would to popping the top off a beer. Even when the cork broke in half, I wasn't concerned. I can extract half a cork almost as smoothly.

When the remainder of the cork disintegrated, profanities were uttered.

As you can see, the story has a happy ending. You just never know when those hemostats are going to come in handy.

We've enjoyed several bottles of this wine. We've enjoyed it even more because we paid $9.99, less a 10 percent mixed case discount. K&L is selling it for $29.99. How did Green's come to have a few bottles stashed away for select customers at a ridiculously low price? I didn't ask.

It's a compelling reason to be really, really nice to your local wine merchant.

I've tried to curtail the gushing about wine, but this is a wine worth gushing about. It's lush and modestly ripe with flavors/aromas of anise, mint, cassis and dried cherry, along with perfectly integrated tannins, soft acidity and a long, decadent finish. I would have gladly paid 30 bucks for it.

WBW #34 is WWWBW

Could it be WBW #34 already? It seems like just the other day that I was missing the deadline for WBW #33.

In any case, we have a fantastic theme for this month. Washington is an exciting area for grape growers and winemakers.

I happened across this article about the turning point for Washington’s wine industry and the role of Walter Clore in driving the creation of Washingon's world-class wines. It’s very interesting reading.

Our kind host this month is Catie, the Wild Walla Walla Wine Woman, of Through The Walla Walla Grape Vine. Our mission was to avoid the Ch. Ste. Michelle and Columbia Crest wines and seek out cabernet sauvignon from some of the state’s numerous other wineries.

With this in mind, I went out scouting for WA cabs. To my immense delight, I found a bottle of 2001 Isenhower Batchelor’s Button Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley 2001 ($32).

While this is actually a Columbia Valley wine, it is from a Walla Walla winery, which hopefully will score me some extra credit points.

As soon as I picked up the bottle, I realized that I was on to something. The beautiful label suggested a small winery. The back of the label told me that the wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered, which I love, and that 450 cases were produced. The vintage was another good sign, as 2001 was a very good year for Washington cabernet.

My hunches were nicely rewarded. It definitely needs some air, but after some time in my glass and in the decanter—it was pure heaven.

I read somewhere that Isenhower makes their cabernet more in the style of Bordeaux rather than California cabs. Bordeaux-ish is certainly an apt description in my opinion. The blend for this vintage is 90% cabernet sauvignon and 10% merlot, and it reminded me of of some of the best attributes of Paulliac.

In the glass, the 2001 Batchelor’s Button is opaque purple with a deep, concentrated nose of black cherry, cassis, currant, eucalyptus, cocoa, mint, and cigar box. Those flavors continue in the long, complex mouthfeel, which is framed by bracing acidity and persistent tannins.

It nicely sidesteps the plush, overdone fruit and oak of some California cabs, while not leaning too far towards the austerity of Bordeaux wines. Given the amount of breathing time it took for this wine to really show its stuff, I would guess it will continue to improve for another 5-10 years.

What’s even more fascinating about this wine is that this is the first vintage Isenhower produced. Bravo.

I highly recommend a visit to the Isenhower Web site. Denise and Brett have a great story to tell and clearly have a commitment to making outstanding wines. I believe I'll be back to that wine shop in search of another bottle.

Thanks to Catie, and thanks, as always, to our WBW guru, Lenn, of Lenndevours.

What's a Wine Worth?

In one of my (many) previous jobs, I sold high-end stereos. This was the kind of place where it was fairly easy to drop $20,000 on a stereo system.

I didn’t sell many of those systems. In fact, I didn’t sell much of anything.

But I digress. One of the most frequent questions I heard from customers was, “Does it really sound that much better?”

My answer usually was, “Yes, if you're really listening…and that’s your thing.”

Many years later, while selling wine, I was frequently faced with a similar question. A customer would look at a $300 bottle of Château Latour and ask, “Is it really that good?”

My response was always something along the lines of, “Yes, if you’re really paying attention…and that’s your thing.”

For a real Bordeaux-lover, a rare or exceptional bottle might be worth a whole lot more. To the average wine drinker, it might taste better than what they're used to, but it might just as easily taste worse—if they're used to drinking soft, fruity reds. It all depends on your perspective and taste buds.

What anything is worth in monetary terms is highly subjective. Lately, I’ve heard several wine critics and commentators talk about $15-$30 being the sweet spot for really good, interesting wines. While there are lots of great wines in that price range, there are lots of really good, interesting wines below that price range as well.

It seems that once someone has had the opportunity to taste lots of expensive wines, their palate gets tuned into those wines and there’s no going back. It’s not necessarily a bad thing (if your budget allows), but it might cause that person to overlook wines in certain, lower price ranges.

I’m reminded of a customer who once asked me about California cabernets for his wine cellar. At the time, the store where I worked had several cases of 1997 Chateau Souverain Cabernet Sauvignon Winemaker’s Reserve, which we were selling for $30 a bottle.

If you happen to have tasted this wine—lucky you—it is fan-freakin’-tastic.

Beyond my humble recommendation, there was a sign hanging on the shelf with copious compliments from the honorable Mr. Parker, who touted the wine’s excellent aging potential and overall yumminess.

My haughty customer, however, took one look at the price and turned up his nose.

“I’m looking for some serious wines,” he said with a condescending sneer.

What a jackass. That wine blows the doors off Napa cabs that are three-times the price, but this guy just had to have the big price tag to impress his buddies, feed his ego or compensate for other unmentionable shortcomings in his life.

The moral of the story is: no matter what your favorite price range is, take a trip outside of it now and again. Let the wine speak for itself, instead of judging by price.

My sweet spot is $8-$12, but I’ve found some lovely wines for $6, and every now-and-again I buy a $30 bottle just to see what’s out there. Once in a blue moon I even spring for something really pricey just to see how the beautiful people live.

There are tasty, wonderful wines in every price range (except the $8-$10 range for 3-liter jugs). Most of us have had the experience of tasting a wine and thinking, how the hell did they make this for that price?

My favorite in that category is 2002 Hacienda El Espino '1707' CMS , a Spanish blend of cabernet, merlot and syrah that my local wine shop sells for $8.99. How they made that wine, shipped it to the U.S. and made any money is completely beyond me.

I’ve learned not to question—just enjoy.

Wine Blogging Wednesday #32

(Okay, so it's not Wednesday. I did the tasting in time, but the post didn't get written. I wanted to share anyway.)

While browsing the shelves in my local wine store recently, it occurred to me that Wine Blogging Wednesday #32 would be here before I knew it. I had a wine in mind for the theme of regular vs. reserve, but I thought, it will be hard to find a regular and a reserve in the same vintage.

It is my understanding that wineries typically release regular and reserve bottlings at different times and maybe in different years. Of course, when I looked at the wines I had in mind—they were the same vintage. Shows how much I know.

The wines I selected were:

Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon Colchagua 2004

Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Colchagua 2004

Los Vascos is part of Domaines de Barons de Rothschilds (Lafite), which encompasses multiple wineries around the world. Los Vascos is one of the older foreign-owned wineries in Chile and one of the early advocates of advanced winemaking methods and vineyard management techniques.

Chile is one of the few countries that was never ravaged by the phylloxera epidemic of the late 1800’s. The vines at Los Vascos are ungrafted, pre-phylloxera, Bordeaux rootstock. The vineyard is located in the Cañaten Valley in the Colchagua province of Chile.

I’ve had the regular Los Vascos Cabernet in the past and always considered it a good value, and I’ve been meaning to try the reserve cab to see how it compares. This is definitely a good example of the reserve being worth the price.

Translucent garnet in color, the regular bottling has aromas of fresh cherries and mint. The flavors are black cherry, vanilla and green pepper with soft tannins and a short finish. It’s a tasty quaff at a very reasonable price—around $8.

The difference in the reserve bottling is apparent in the opaque purple color and the complex aromas of plum, dried cherry, garique and cigar box. The more this wine sat in the glass, the more it opened up. The flavors are blackberry, black cherry, plum, cassis, mint and cedar with firm tannins and a lingering finish. This is a rich, deep, complex wine for not a lot of money—around $15.

On an interesting side note, I had a glass of each on the second night, and they both held up very nicely, the reserve especially. This makes me think that if you’re in the market for a reasonably priced cabernet for short term cellaring, the reserve would be a good choice.