Cuvee Juveniles sure doesn’t sound like a Barossa Valley wine at all.

The name makes it sound rather French, but the well known Barossa Valley winery, Torbreck, is known for its tongue in cheek plays on words, plus a strong tie to Rhone wine regions in France.  Plus, there it was on the label: Barossa Valley.

Flipping the bottle over and reading the back label, the story is that this South Australian blend was created by winemaker and Torbreck founder, Dave Powell, for his friend who just happened to own a wine bar in Paris: Juveniles Wine Bar.  It begins to all make sense.

I opened the bottle and began to drink the wine. Then it became even more clear.

As both Torbreck and the Barossa valley wines are known for in general, old wine producing vines make very interesting new wines.  A blend of Grenache (60%), Mataro (Mourvedre)(20%) and Shiraz (20%) make a wine that seemed on first impression to be youthful and natural, without a heavy wine-making presence. Sort of pure. It got me thinking about what each of the three grapes bring to the table?

• Grenache: The Grenache brings volume—I get that at 60%. It also brightens it up and I think a good amount of the spices might come from the Grenache.
• Mataro: While used to make to make both strong, dark red wines and rosés, Mataro if often used in a Grenache blend, as we see here, giving it both softness and structure.
• Shiraz:  Here is the backbone and fullness. Good, balanced tannins come with the Shiraz as well. 

This is a wine with a lot of complexity. The Torbreck website says its unoaked with natural malo-lactic fermentation and without filtration or fining.

Barossa Valley does it again!

The dark, dense color belies the ready accessibility of this wine. A pleasant, full and lively mouth feel. Nothing like a good Rhone from Barossa Valley! I was a little surprised with this wine. I was expecting something a little rougher and more one dimensional. I got a layered wine with lots of spices, cherries and blackberry that was ready to drink. Which, I was quite pleased to do.

With a Wine Advocate rating of 91, we know these old vines still got it!  Torbreck Cuvee Juveniles 07 is ready to drink now, but with a price like this, it’s worth it to put a few bottles away to mature as well.

How Mount Eden Brings Us Back

Chardonnay Wine Tastings; then and now

Perhaps 15 years ago a number of us who drink wine on a regular basis decided to do a blind tasting of the California Chardonnays. I am pretty sure we focused on Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley Chardonnays. We did this tasting over several weeks since we wanted to get a broad representation of wines, all from the same vintage.

California producing some rather mid range Chardonnay

There were some very highly rated California wines included in this Chardonnay wine tasting and some rather expensive entries as well. After the tasting, many of us reached the same conclusion: the wines were all good and on a simple 5 point scale, scored 3ish. What was striking was how similar they were. They had that big, oaky, malelactic style. And as wine people tend to do, we discussed this for some length over more bottles of Chardonnay over the ensuing months.

The California Chardonnay Conclusion

At that time, Napa and Sonoma Valley wineries, on balance, were making their wines to hit a perceived, and perhaps actual, American palate. This was an American palate that grew up on sweeter wines and loved the oak to match this taste preference.

Leaving Chardonnay

So, we went the opposite extreme. We had “ABC Tastings” as in Anything But Chardonnay.

We yearned for winemakers that would let the fruit do the talking and provide less influence on the outcome. We reminded ourselves why we liked French White Burgundy so much. We also found refuge in other California wine growing areas. Central Coast, Edna Valley, St. Luis Obispo (SLO) struck that balance of tropical fruit and traditional chardonnay flavors. The wines were lively, friendly and great wines by themselves or with food.

Fast Forward, Back to California’s Mount Eden:

Tiring a bit on Sauvignon Blanc, I decided to revisit Chardonnays. I began with a bottle of Edna Valley’s 2007 Mount Eden Chardonnay from Wolff Vineyard in California.  The color was slightly lime green (but then I was wearing a lime green shirt), exceptionally clear and bright. The first thing I noticed was that Edna Valley fruit. This wine had the fruit talking with some lemony citrus and lots of forward fruit; pear, spice, hint of apple. The Mount Eden Chardonnay was ripe and intense with a pleasant, long finish. 

Priced at only $19.00 a bottle, this is a great price for a wine this complex and accessible. I bought a few more.

Chardonnay Wine Tasting part deux

Pleasantly surprised by my delight with the Mount Eden Chard, I went to another California Chardonnay tasting.

This time it was a brown bag night at my favorite wine retailer. Folks bagged up their chardonnays and we tried perhaps 10-12 Chardonnays blind. Only a couple had that big, buttery, oaky taste that I ran away from years ago. Most of them were truly lovely and worth drinking much like the Mount Eden.

This made me wonder if the vineyards were changing or the wine producers had changed their style — or perhaps the American consumer had finally matured their pallet away from that sweeter preference.

Either way, I’ll be tasting more California Chardonnays in the weeks and months to come, rediscovering a wine that I left many years ago.

 I recently was looking for a zinfandel wine and picked up a bottle of red Zinfandel 2007 from Frei Brothers in Sonoma, California.

Actually the label identified it as a “reserve” but then, I am pretty sure that all of their wines are labeled “reserve”…but that’s another blog entry!

The label also identified it as Dry Creek Valley and I do love Zinfandels from Dry Creek. Plus, at $15.00 a bottle, these Zinfandel grapes are priced right! Dry Creek area is great for growing zinfandel grapes.

So, corkscrew in hand, off I went to give the Frei Brother’s a try.  

I was not disappointed. 

First thing I noticed was that it had a deep purple color with a brightness on the edge that suggested some youth. Flavor components were blackberries, cherries and probably some other berries. I also noticed the forward spices and thought I detected some cinnamon, a flavor component that I particularly like. 

The Zinfandel is listed at 15% alcohol and it tasted a little hot, but then it was a Zinfandel. I thought the alcohol might blow off a little with some time in the glass if I could just be patient. But patience is not a strong suit. I would not characterize the wine as lush, but it was complex with some excellent layering of fruit that generated a very pleasant, long finish.

I went to the Frei Brothers website and could not find a reference to Zinfandel anywhere on their site, except as it is used in blending. So, if you can find this wine, you might want to buy it. Not made to be a collector’s item, it would make a great conservation starter at a party.

Frei Brothers has been owned by the Gallo family since 1978, but the winery and the grapes have been around since 1890. Good soil, California air and a long family tradition makes this red zif wine worth a try.

I’m going to get myself another few bottles of the Frei Brothers Reserve Zinfandel 07 before it’s gone for good.

Move over Wine Corks,  Synthetic Wine Corks & the Screwcap!

Last week I opened a bottle of Calera Viognier 2007 because, well, I love Viognier especially from California producers. I haven’t had Calera for some time, perhaps several years, so it was like visiting with an old friend. I’ve had this wine before, but it has been a few years. What came next was not shocking—but sure as heck, surprised the heck out of me.

Instead of popping a cork or twisting off the cap, I cut foil to find a glass closure. 

Glass! Was Calera just trying to one-up the competition or was this closure for real? I certainly thought Calera was above gimmicks and after tasting the wine, I would have to agree this is no gimmick. The Viognier was exactly what I thought (and hoped) it would be with nectarine aromas, silky texture that produced a wonderful mouth feel and long, lingering finish.

After sharing this bottle with friends before dinner, we decided to continue the investigation of Calera and the glass closure over a seafood dinner. So we order the Calera Pinot Noir. I think it was the Mt. Harlan Cuvee and it, too, was delightful. Lots of layering aromas and complexity, yet easy to drink and a perfect match for the seafood our table was ordering.

OK, no gimmicks here with the glass closure.

A real wine stopper. This glass stopper had a o-ring seal that obviously prevented oxidation and obvious held the stopper in and kept the wine from falling out!

“This can’t be cheap,” I thought.

I wonder if there are any “scientific” comparisons that demonstrate the effectiveness of the stoppers?

People who have any history of wine drinking have obviously observed and opened wine with alternative wine closures.  Remember the first screw caps. It seems like they have been on New Zealand wines for perhaps a decade. Many people, myself included, believe they provide a tighter seal than cork, which is both good and bad. But the screwcap needs a better press agent.

I think many people still associate screwcaps with “cheap” wines.

We have all struggled wrestling those extremely tight fitting synthetic corks out of bottles as well. They almost look like real corks. They more or less make that popping noise when open and once out of the bottle they are hard to put back in. And, my “green” spouse reminds me, they are not biodegradable.

But did I tell you about the glass closures?

They are really, really neat. I may have to keep buying Calera unless someone out there knows what other wines have glass closures or glass stoppers?