We store about $25,000 in wine inventory throughout the year and the holiday season is probably my least active for wine purchases. We are busy at the Inn and the holidays mess around with the schedules of the vendors. Nonetheless, we did just receive a couple of wines. One is new to me and the other is an old favorite.
The new wine is:
Castle Rock California Cuvée Pinot Noir 2009 ($8 – that’s right – only $8!) So how do you find an $8 pinot noir that’s any good? Frankly, when I tasted this one last week I thought it was a $20-$25 wine. The label on this wine gives you some clues as to why this is such a buy. The clues are the words “California” and “Cuvée.”
The trend in winemaking and thus wine labels has been single-vineyard or at least single appellations. The idea, which is correct, is that each vineyard, each valley, each region imparts unique qualities to the grape and thus to the wine. But what happens if you mix grapes from different areas? If each area produces a grape with a slightly different flavor profile you conceivably have a wine that combines the strengths of each of those areas.
The word “California” on the label (instead of Napa, Sonoma, Monterey, etc.) means that grapes are sourced from throughout the state. These grapes are fermented separately, usually near the vineyard, and then blended into the final product.
Cuvée is simply a word that means blend. So does Meritage, (rhymes with heritage) and wines that simply say Red Table Wine.
I am not certain how this particular winery does its bottling, but one might think that there might be some wine left at the end of a bottling run from each vineyard. How about mixing these odds and ends and bottling that cuvee?
Alternately, the winemaker is a master at blending tastes to create from many wines a single wine with a particular flavor profile that highlights the best from each vineyard.
Either explanation works for me when you get a great drinking pinot noir for $8.
Franciscan Chardonnay 2010 ($13) This is like visiting an old friend. Franciscan wines have been around for the last 30 years. The founders were some of the first in the Napa Valley. The wines from this operation tend to be traditional in style but there are a few extra steps that winemaker, Janet Myers, takes to add just a little more flavor to the wine.
Disclaimer: Chardonnay is generally my least favorite white wine. I prefer the crisp citrus qualities of Sauvignon Blanc. I like the mineral qualities of Torrontes which hails from Argentina. Pinot Gris from Washington State tickles the tongue. Riesling seems to universally support the food which it accompanies. I came to know chardonnay during the heavy oak aging days inspired by Kendall Jackson. Somehow wine that tastes like toothpicks is not my cup of tea.
Fortunately winemakers have been moving away from the heavy oak influence and allowing the fruitiness of the grape to show through. So why oak in the first place? Chardonnay is a wine that tends to have a great start, a decent middle, and a weak finish or aftertaste. Oak aging compensates for that weak finish by adding flavors and tannins that some call a buttery finish, some call toasty.
If done gently, oak aging should add a vanilla finish. To enhance that finish, this wine also endures sur lie aging; which means that the wine remains with the spent yeast cells after fermentation. This process also enhances the finish.
Light oak treatment, sur lie aging, and ripe fruit create a wine for chardonnay lovers and chardonnay skeptics like me.
