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Wine Review: Estancia Stonewall Pinot Noir 2004

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Wine: Estancia Pinot Noir 2004
Santa Lucia Highlands Stonewall Vineyards

Estancia Pinot Noir Stonewall bottleEstancia Winery, based in Monterey County, California, is known to cheapskates like me as a producer of solid, reliable wines in the $10-15 range. I’ve been particularly impressed with their “entry level” Pinot Noir (Pinnacles Ranches), which stands out as a keeper among the sea of crappy under-$20 Pinots made by myriad other producers. The recent excitement over Pinot Noir, and in turn its overproduction, has resulted in too many disappointing bottles, making me wary of choosing one outside of Burgundy and/or under forty bucks. Luckily, Estancia has a staked interest in their reputation, and is more interested in bottling quality wine than rushing the grape de rigeur to market.

One of their quality bottlings is their “Stonewall” Pinot Noir, made from grapes grown in their Stonewall Vineyard of Santa Lucia Highlands. Santa Lucia Highlands earned an AVA (designation as an “official” or unique wine growing region) in 1991, and has recently emerged as one of the most exciting American regions for Pinot Noir. It would take too much room to explain why the area has become so important as a winegrowing region, so you’ll have to trust me on this: if you see Santa Lucia Highlands on a Pinot Noir label, chances are good that the wine inside will be good.

The “Stonewall” Pinot Noir has a ripe, deep, complex aroma of red and black raspberry, black cherry, a good dose of spice and hint of earth. On the palate you get yummy, ripe strawberry and red raspberry fruit upfront, which mellows and balances nicely on the palate with mild acidity and mild tannins. Finish is subtle, but long and pleasing. Very little alcohol is apparent, which is somewhat surprising considering the upfront ripeness. Vanilla spice melds with mild hints of earth, green unripe fruits, and sweet tobacco. Texture is smooth. A very nice wine by itself, it has just enough to stand up to milder dishes. Try it with fish and mildly seasoned vegetarian and poultry dishes. One of the better bottles of under-$30 Pinot Noir.

a-8 t-8 b-8 fc-8 v-8 ~ 90 Points

Estancia Winery Website

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Wine Gift: Heidsieck Champagne

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Heidsieck Blue Top Champagne bottleHeidsieck & Co Monopole Blue Top Premiers Crus

When you’re stumped — and pressed for time— about what to get as a gift for the wine lover in your life, the best idea is a bottle of Champagne. Champagne is the epitome of celebration, the exclamation point of a joyous occasion — and therefore a perfect gift.

However, don’t just go out and get any Champagne — get something different, special, rare, memorable. Any fool can walk in and buy a bottle of Dom Perignon … so go out of your way to choose something lesser-known yet highly regarded. A bottle you can’t find just anywhere. A bottle with a story. A bottle like Heidsieck & Co. Blue Top.

This Champagne has nothing to do with Charles Heidsieck, nor Piper-Heidsieck — Heidsieck & Monopole is a completely separate, individual Champagne house, and in fact, has been around since 1785. There’s your story: it’s not what you think it is … but it could be better. Oh, want another bit of trivia to add to the story? Just this year, a bottle of 1907 Heidsieck Monopole was sold for $4200 at the Hart Davis Hart Auction in Chicago. You got that right — forty-two-hundred, for one bottle — the most paid in 2006 for one 750ml bottle of bubbly.

There’s another way to keep this Champagne separated in your mind from the others: its appearance. This “Blue Top” sparkler comes in a striking and distinctive, Corvette-yellow bottle with — you guessed it — a blue top.

But why go to the trouble of finding this particular bottle? Aren’t there plenty of other Champagnes and sparkling wines to choose from, also with good stories? Well, there are. And many are very good. Some are better. But not all are distinctively packaged, and thus you may find yourself staring at a full shelf of lookalike bottles with unpronounceable French names, wondering which one was the bottle recommended by your favorite wine magazine or blogger. Sure, you can’t judge a wine by its bottle any more than a book by its cover, but there’s something to be said for shopping efficiency during the holiday season, and in this case, the screaming yellow bottle contains an appropriately worthwhile wine inside.

This is a dry style of Champagne, so if your gift recipient is into the sweeter sparklers, stay away. Otherwise, dive right in. You will be excited with anticipation the moment the wine is poured into the glass, as it will become charged with an abundance of aggressive, tiny bubbles that develop an immediate, full foam (or mousse, as the French call it). Take a moment to stick your nose in the glass, and you will be rewarded with a clean, citrusy, slightly toasted aroma that also has a hint of mineral. In the mouth, you get very similar flavors as were on the nose, along with a touch of honey and pear, all tightly wound by a stiffly acidic wrapper. It has excellent structure, yet remains elegant and has the perception of being lighter than it really is.

If you always drink sparkling wines alone, you might not understand the acidity — until you start popping hors d’oeuvres in your mouth. The Blue Top is wonderful for the table top, as it pairs perfectly with a variety of appetizers, can match with most fish and white meats, and will temper the heat of a hot and spicy dish. Champagne is not enjoyed with food often enough, and this bottle is as good an excuse as any to break that trend.

I originally discovered this sparkler at a Champagne tasting a few months ago, and found it to be the best of a very competitive bunch — to me it was more enjoyable than several better known, much more expensive Champagnes against which I tasted head-to-head (including two of James Bonds’ favorites). Tasting it again, alone, and with food, it’s still impressive and becoming one of my favorite sparklers.

It may be hard to find, but is well worth the search. Consider it your little secret, and as a gift for the holidays. The recipient will not be disappointed.

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Red Wine Review: Lyeth Meritage 2003

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Lyeth Meritage bottle shotAfter getting hammered by several wine critics, I just had to get my hands on a bottle and find out what was so awful. After opening the bottle, I understood the problem encountered by the pundits — Lyeth Meritage is a raw, rough-around-the-edges wine that does not immediately show well. Subsequently, the wine was given low ratings and ambivalent reviews. But this doesn’t mean the wine isn’t worth buying — rather, what it means is that Lyeth Meritage does not impress critics in a typical wine reviewer’s environment.

You have to take this into serious consideration whenever you read a wine review in a major wine magazine. Generally, a wine reviewer will taste anywhere from 25 to 50 wines — before breakfast! There are literally dozens of bottles waiting to be reviewed, and only so much time to taste them. Consequently, many wines — usually ones that are not wide open and do not show globs of upfront fruit — will be given lower ratings than they really deserve. That’s not a knock on the major wine publications — for the most part they do a decent job — but rather a criticism of their system. (You’re allowed to critique a critic, right?)

Lyeth Meritage is an example of a wine hurt by “the system”. Tasted within minutes after opening, its nose is closed, it has a harsh bite on the palate, and at best it seems clumsy. However, if you open the wine, decant it, and let it breathe for 10-20 minutes, you will be rewarded by ripe red and black berry aromas and flavors, some black pepper, a hint of licorice, cardamom and clove spice, firm tannins, and ample acidity — with the initial harshness replaced by a smooth texture and fairly long, ripe finish that might end up just a touch too hot. Let’s get something straight: this is no mind-blowing wine — but it isn’t supposed to be. For about fifteen bucks, you should expect a wine that matches well with a similarly priced steak, and gives you a bit of complexity to ponder over an after-dinner cheese course. Said another way, it should be about twice as good as a seven-dollar wine, and about half as good as a 30-dollar wine — and it is, in both cases. In fact, this wine might be a little better, though time will tell. The amount of ripe fruit and complexity (earth, spices, menthol, tobacco, herb) that it is showing now, wrapped up by generous tannins, leads me to believe that this Meritage will benefit from 3-4 years in the cellar. Here’s the good news: since the “important” wine mags gave this wine less-than-stellar reviews, you should be able to find this easily, and perhaps at a discount. Enjoy it now with a fatty ribeye, porterhouse, or cheese plate, or put it in the wine cave and forget about it until 2008-2009.

a-6 t-7 b-8 fc-6 v-8 ~ 85 point rating

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Tenuta di Arceno PrimaVoce 2003

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Tenuta di Arceno PrimaVoce Italian Red WineThis is the “entry” level of a very interesting winery, retailing for about twenty bucks (kinda pricey for an “entry level”, eh?). Tenuta di Arceno is an estate in Chianti, Tuscany (Italy) owned by California wine legend Jess Jackson (of Kendall-Jackson; not to be confused with the British DJ nor the minister/politician) and run by French vigneron / winemaster Pierre Seillan. So, you have a Bordeaux genius making wine in Chianti that is marketed by an American … pretty cool combination, and based on this wine, a pretty potent one as well.

When first opened, the nose didn’t show a whole lot, but after letting it sit in the glass for a few minutes — mild aromas of black raspberry, maybe a hint of roasted bell pepper, and earth started to creep out from underneath. In the mouth it appears mild and unassuming, almost light, until you realize you are still tasting the wine about a minute after it’s been swallowed. A touch of sour black cherry and mild acidity appears during the tail end of the finish, perhaps suggesting the bit of Tuscan Sangiovese that makes up 13% of the blend (not 10%, not 15%, but precisely 13 — so you know the winemaker is fairly precise in his efforts!). Paying more attention to subsequent sips allowed me to discover ripe black cherry, an earthy / leathery component, and a creamy vanilla hint.

The press sheet tells us that 57% of the blend is Merlot, which I do get from the raspberry flavor and notes of bell pepper. 22% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8% Syrah fill out the remainder.

With a silky smooth texture, understated complexity, and a long, balanced finish, this wine borders on contemplative, and was certainly enjoyable on its own. I think it will be best with a homemade pasta dish, perhaps with a fresh marinara and basil sauce, rosemary/sage, or veal ragout.

If you see this bottle, buy it. It drinks as well or better than many wines twice its price. Bring it to your next dinner party, as it will impress casual wine drinkers and connoisseurs alike, and the story behind it makes for good conversation.

Red Wine Review: Fourplay from Sicily

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fourplay sicilian red wine
Real deal cost: $11.99

Easy now, the title is NOT misspelled, and this article has nothing to do with between-the-sheets romance.

Rather, we have a red wine blend created through a marriage of equal parts of four grapes indigenous to Sicily: Frappato Nero, Nerello Cappuccio, Nerello Mascalese, and Nero D’Avola. You likely never heard of any of these grapes, and there’s little reason to commit them to memory; unless, of course, you’d like to impress your wine-snob friends.

This Sicilian red wine is a collaboration between the Tuscan estate Dievole and the Sicilian vintner Saro di Pietro, and was bottled in the Saro di Pietro Estate in Pachino, Sicily. Again, there won’t be a quiz, so no need to remember all this except for sounding good in front of a crowd.

What matters most is that this wine is an affordable alternative to Chianti Riservas that cost around five to ten dollars more. Ripe black cherry, tar, blackberry, and roasted meat aromas fill the nose, while the palate is dominated by ripe black cherry and a smooth texture. Good acidity and medium tannins hold things together quite nicely, and the wine finishes with a good balance that includes ripe fruit and hints of tobacco and a pleasantly bitter vegetal / earthy component. Because of that touch of bitterness at the end, I suggest you match this with food before trying it alone. It will go well with cheeses and cheesy dishes, pasta in marinara, pizza, sausage, eggplant parm, and blackened white meats.

For a wine that holds such a seductive and promiscuous name, it should be sexier; instead, it is a solid Chianti fill-in. An OK-to-good value at 12.99, if you can get it closer to ten bucks then grab it.

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