Wine Tasting:
Blackstone 2001 California Merlot
Winery: Blackstone
Brand/Type: Merlot
Vintage: 2001
Country: USA
Region: California
Alcohol content: 13%
Closure: Synthetic cork
Appearance: Dark, inky, ruby red
Aroma/Bouquet: Pungent blackberries, noticable alcohol odor
Noticeable wood and spice flavors. Smooth, dry with a crisp spicy finish. Has a slight vinegar aftertaste.
Blackstone is a fairly popular/common brand name. Not sure why they feel it important to note that this is a “California” Merlot. According to the Blackstone website, this is actually a blend.
An average Merlot. As an alternative you could buy three bottles of Charles Shaw, have a better experience, have money left for gas, and do yourself no harm.
Wine Tasting:
Franz Reh & Son 2002 Pinot Grigio
Winery: Franz Reh & Son
Brand/Type: Pinot Grigio
Vintage: 2002
Country: Germany
Region: Pfalz
Alcohol content: 12.5%
Closure: Synthetic Cork
Appearance: Pale gold
Aroma/Bouquet: Lemon, pine
Dry, slight bit of oak, strong sharp finish with a hint of pear at the end.
An affordable wine that is very respectable. This is a fairly simple wine without much complexity but you can do far worse with other high priced pinot grigios. If you find this buy it. You’ll do no harm to your palate or pocketbook.
Wine Tasting:
2003 Bonny Doon Madiran Heart of Darkness
Winery: Bonny Doon
Brand/Type: Madiran
Vintage: 2003
Country: USA
Region: California
Alcohol content: 13.5
Closure: Synthethic Cork
Appearance: Dark Ruby/Garnet
Aroma/Bouquet: Blackberries, mmm, nice, rich, ripe blackberries!
Complex, heavy on the tongue, sharp finish.
Just in time for Halloween! Don’t let the Ralph Steadman label scare you! This is a robust and complex wine that begs to be savored slowly. If you let it out and allow the spirit to breathe, you’ll be rewarded by a soulful glass that won’t haunt you. Ok, Edgar Allen Poe we aren’t. Enough Halloween euphemisms already!
The longer I savored this, the more it reminded me of a Brunello. Not as dry, but that can be a positive with some Brunellos. Not as expensive either, so that would be a definite treat.
Bonny Doon isn’t afraid of pushing their limits or taking risks. This wine shouldn’t scare you either!
Wine Tasting:
2003 Fetzer Valley Oaks Merlot
Winery: Fetzer
Brand/Type: Valley Oaks Merlot
Vintage: 2003
Country: USA
Region: California
Alcohol content: 13.1%
Closure: Natural Cork
Appearance: Dark Ruby
Aroma/Bouquet: Deep, rich, blackberries and currants.
This is a very nice Merlot. Ample flavors, complex body, softly smooth and satisfying. Slight cherry and spice, a hint of oak. Not “too” dry.
Of special note; Fetzer grows all of their grapes organically.
Fetzer is one of the largest producers of organic wines in the world. Fetzer is also committed to other environmentally friendly practices. So in case you’re looking for a conscionable wine, Fetzer should be on your shopping list.
Wine Tasting:
2005 Chateau Chantal Pinot Noir
Winery: Chateau Chantal
Brand/Type: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2005
Country: USA
Region: Old Mission Peninsula, Michigan
Alcohol content: 12.5%
Closure: Natural Cork
Appearance: Purple to ruby red
Aroma/Bouquet: Barely there… “wine-ish”.
Flat, little flavor, vague cherry, plum, smoke.
Rather disappointing. Considering that this was sampled at their tasting room, perhaps this was a bottle that was left open from the night before?
Wine Tasting:
La Vieille Ferme 2004 Côtes du Ventoux
Winery: La Vieille Ferme
Brand/Type: Rosé
Vintage: 2004
Country: France
Region: Provence, Côtes du Ventoux
Alcohol content: 13%
Closure: Scew cap
Appearance: Medium Ruby
Aroma/Bouquet: Fresh grapes and cinnamon
This Rose (a blend of Cinsaut (50%), Grenache (40%), Syrah (10%)) is quite fruity! It’s a very nice alternative to White Zinfandel. Yes, we know we probably just offended many wine snobs for even mentioning White Zin. Get over it!
It has a slight cherry tangent but with a more cranberry/orange taste. A nice dry and clean finish.
OK, so this is a much drier wine than the aforementioned variety. This wine is probably best chilled but is quite good at slightly less than room temperature. Perfectly acceptable at room temperature too!
This is very reasonably priced. Buy it if you can find it!
Wine Tasting:
Chateau Grand Traverse 2004 Edelzwicker
Winery: Chateau Grand Traverse
Brand/Type: Edelzwicker
Vintage: 2004
Country: USA
Region: Old Mission Peninsula, Michigan
Alcohol content: 12.5%
Closure: Natural Cork
Appearance: Pale straw
Aroma/Bouquet: Apricot, sweet silage
This Edelzwicker is described by Chateau Grand Traverse as being a “Noble Blend†of Pinot Blanc, Gewürztraminer, Muscat, Riesling, and Pinot Gris. Given this complex blend of grapes, you would expect a complex wine. Chateau Grand Traverse delivers precisely that!
Chateau Grand Traverse has proven that they are not just another Northern Michigan Riesling or Cherry wine producer. They do those very well mind you. However their Chardonnays and in this case, Edelzwickers are quite engaging and rewarding.
This wine offers a large mouthful of flavor. That’s not to say that it is overwhelming, it’s not. It offers a sensory adventure that begins with the nose and continues steadily on until the finish. At 12.5 % alcohol you might expect this to have some harsheness; we detected none. We have to credit Chateau Grand Traverse’s expertise in balancing the blend of grapes. Nice job!
Unfortunately their distribution is not very wide. If you are near a Meijer store look for Chateau Grand Traverse wines in their regional section. IGA’s and Tom’s in Northern Michigan are also stocking vendors for Chateau Grand Traverse. Of course if you are in the Traverse City area you can stop by the winery or their outlet store.
Wine Tasting:
Good Harbor 2004 Late Harvest White Riesling
Winery: Good Harbor
Brand/Type: White Riesling
Vintage: 2004
Country: USA
Region: Leelanau Peninsula, Michigan
Alcohol content: 10%
Closure: Natural Cork
Appearance: Honey blonde
Aroma/Bouquet: Light citrus and pear
This is a continuation on our tour of Michigan’s Traverse City area wineries.
Good Harbor is again one of the gems of Northern Michigan’s wine country. Good Harbor offers a very nice variety of wines and this time we focus on another white.
Rieslings should show a complex character. Rieslings are to flavor as chameleons are to color. Good Harbor’s whites follow in this theme.
This off dry late harvest White Riesling is quite complex. It has a range of fruitiness that goes from pear to melon with a nice bit of acidity and citrus. It also has a nice mineral edge. This is the driest of Good Harbor’s Rieslings.
Wine Tasting:
Tualatin Müller Thurgau
Winery: Tualatin
Brand/Type: Müller Thurgau
Vintage: 1996
Country: USA
Region: Willamette Valley, Oregon
Alcohol content: 11%
Closure: Natural Cork
Appearance: Pale blonde
Aroma/Bouquet: Rotten cork, strong alcohol odor
This is more of a non-review than a review. Why? Well like most things in life, bottled wine has risks and rewards. This is about risk.
All bottles of wine need some form of a closure. Cork is the defacto standard with thousands of years experience. Synthetic corks and screw caps are relatively new options. Cork being an organic material has its risks. It can be flawed and allow air to seep into the wine or worse yet, allow the wine to seep out. Sometimes it can unintentionally add a flavor to the wine. Often this is due to a fungus that is carried by the cork.
A “corked” wine is not a pleasant thing. I had the misfortuane of acquiring an entire case of French Beaujolais that was corked. Both my money, and the wine, went down the drain.
Once again this misfortune has struck again. At least it’s not an entire case this time. The first bad omen should have been the price. I found this in the clearance aisle marked down to $7.99; more than half off.
The next omen was subtle; it’s age – a ten year old wine. More obvious was while uncorking the bottle, the cork broke in half. Worse was that the remainder was damp and smelled of wine. It was rotting. After finally extracting the rotten cork, we sampled the wine. It was bad. Not horribly corked, but it was indeed tainted. Upon examining the cork you could see that the cork had a flaw in it. It looked to have some small grain type defect that likely allowed the wine to infiltrate the cork and between age and handling the cork rotted.
Frankly corks should be a thing of the past. Screw caps work better. Synthetic corks are a compromise. While this won’t stop us from buying wine with natural corks, we will be a bit more cautious on buying older bottles.
Wine Tasting:
2001 Schloss Schönborn Kabinett Riesling
Winery: Schloss Schönborn
Brand/Type: Kabinett Riesling
Vintage: 2001
Country: Germany
Region: Rheingau Hattenheimer Pfaffenberg
Alcohol content: 9.5%
Closure: Natural Cork
Appearance: Light blonde
Aroma/Bouquet: Peach, pear, hint of vanilla
Coming from a very old and respected winery, we had high expectations of this wine. We were not disapointed!
It’s a very crisp Kabinett that is wonderfully complex and balanced. It’s a dry Riesling (as you would expect from a Kabinett) and is indeed one Riesling that can stand on its own or be paired with a multitude of fine foods. Fish and fowl and even pork go well with this wine. It is also a wonderful wine to drink by itself on a warm summer night.
As expected of Kabinetts, it is a dry Riesling with just a tiny hint of sweetness. While it has a mostly pear and peach taste it also has a tangerine/citrus element that adds a degree of tartness and balance. While it has these delicate fruit tastes it still maintains itself as dry wine.
Schloss Schönborn is one of Germany’s oldest producers of wine and their experience is proven in this offering.
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