winewaves

2006 Mollydooker Goosebumps Sparkling Shiraz

First off pardon the dearth of posts, it's rather hot here out west and wine is not a summer pastime. In fact, for fear of heat damage, all fine wine shops here do not receive new inventory from the end of May through October. This is disaster for trying new things or getting new vintages of old favorites - but it's great on the pocket as bottle shops try to unload their inventory in anticipation of new stuff in the fall. There's that and...try as I might, I have not mastered Jerry's patented bottle on the side photography technique - but no matter. I think you'll get the idea:

I recently inked a new business deal and to celebrate decided to get a bottle of bubbly. My go-to bubbly is usually something from the alchemists at Billecarte-Salmon. However, this week I was a) unwilling to drive to the only place that keeps the stuff in stock and b) looking for an excuse to try this curiousity known as sparkling shiraz.

I'm not sure when I first heard of this stuff - but in my minds eye...er mouth I imagined this to be a charming, quirky take on bubbly much like Proseco. I located a bottle and put it on ice where upon my first dilemma arose - champagne glasses or wine glasses? I stuck with champagne stems.

At this point I should note that I didn't do any research on this, as I often do before I buy a +$50 bottle. Keep that in mind - it'll be funny later on.

Quick background on MollyDooker: It's the latest outgrowth from husband and wife wine making team  Sarah & Sparky Marquis. They insist that you pronounce their last name 'mar-kwis' but it sounds so much more fun if you pronounce it the French way: 'Sparky Markey' sounds like some sort of wine making secret agent. Anyway, they make a number of quirky, robust, slightly upmarket (over $35 here) wines under this label. If you've had a bottle of Marquis Philips - which is a great deal more reasonable ($17 here) - you've tasted their work, as well.

Anyway, the ball and chain and I polished off dinner (grilled carne asada - two thumbs up there!) and I popped the cork on the Goosebumps. The first thing you get on the nose is a blast of carbonate propelled fruit. Compared to your typical Aussie fruit bomb - this is a fruit mortar. In the mouth your first thought is, "WOW, this is actually sparkling shiraz!" followed soon after by, "What the hell was I thinking anyway?" The carbonation process imparts a powerful sweetness to what might otherwise be a very decent Shiraz.

What you are left with is a curiosity that will, most likely make you wonder what else you could have dropped $56 on. As I was drinking this I was thinking of a non vintage Billecarte Salmon or even non bubbly - Peter Franus Zinfandel. The Old Ghost from Lodi. An Alexander Valley Silver Oak - if you're a careful shopper...a Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cab, even. What I wasn't at all thinking is of buying another bottle of Goosebumps.

As an after thought I did a little research on Cellar Tracker and some other sites and came up with the following pithy reviews:

"Ugh! Did not like this wine at all. I must say it was what it promised to be: a dark, brooding, overwhelming Mollydooker shiraz bomb with gas. But just think about that for a second, is that enjoyable? No, no it isn't."

"Just not good. Ugh I have 2 more bottles to get rid of."

"This stuff was absolutely wretched. Over the top alcoholic and artificial fruit flavors that remind me of trying to wash dirt out of my mouth with Robitussin cough syrup."

"I really had trouble choking down this wine. I could not get past the feel inside my mouth to evaluate the taste. It reminded me of pop rocks."

Lesson learned.

Price: $56 (Out West). Closure: Real cork with wire. Alcohol content: 15.0%.

3 Rings 2006 Barossa Valley Shiraz

If you're wondering if everybody here at Wine Waves has a fetish for Grateful Palate imported wines, wonder no more. We do, and so should you. They find talented people (mostly in Australia) making excellent wines at reasonable prices and then they put them on a plane or boat (or dirigible, the method of transport isn't clear) and bring them to your neck of the woods (if you're lucky).

That's the long way of saying I'm reviewing another Grateful Palate imported wine - this week the 2006 Barossa Valley from 3 Rings. Having had many positive experiences with  Grateful Palate imported wine, I was well prepared to enjoy 3 Rings Shiraz.

But I didn't.

There are several reasons, primarily the odd, funky finish. I let it air for a while and after 2-3 hours the dark plummy fruit came out more but really didn't sell me either. To be completely honest I won't buy another bottle of 3 Rings. There are better Shiraz out there - R Wines Boarding Pass for example, is $3 more expensive but far more interesting and drinkable. I will say that 3 Rings avoids most all the dirty dishwater flavors of other inexpensive Shiraz, and at $15 it's not a bad glass of wine, but there are so many better it's hard to justify buying or drinking.

Price: $15 (Costco - Out West). Closure: Screw top. Alcohol content: 15.0%.

Klinker Brick 2005 Old Vine Lodi Zinfandel

Let's face it, there is a lot of bad Zinfandel out there. And then there's that white Zinfandel stigma. So, buying Zinfandel can be a bit of a minefield. Here's a word of advice - if the name is a pun on the word 'zin' it's probably worth passing by. Any wine called Zin-cinatti or Zin-ammon. Is really trying too hard. Avoid it.

Based on the above, I haven't been a big buyer of Zinfandel. However, while browsing the wine section of my local gourmet market I ran into the big, gay proprietor of a (different) local wine shop and we got to talking about the selection. He pointed out that the two best things they had on the shelf that day were Klinker Brick's 2005 Zin and a retardedly unaffordable claret. So - zin it is.

The Klinker Brink should not be classed among those lesser zins, for sure. It's a really amazing example of Zinfandel - in fact, after the Klinker, just to see if my tasting was accurate I sipped a few others including the 2005 Terraces Zin. I was right the first time - the Klinker is a stunner.

It's from Lodi, California and harvested from a selection of vines ranging in age from 35-110 years old. One HUNDRED and ten years old! For reference that means the first vines in this bottle were planted in 1898. Other things that happened in 1898: The Spanish-American War started. New York City is divided into 5 bouroughs and the US annexed the Hawaiian islands.

Okay, enough trivia, onto the facts: The Klinker is 100% Zinfandel aged for 15 months in American oak. Harvested late, the 2005 yields were higher than average. It's $17 a bottle directly from Klinker, and if you are crafty (like me) you can find it for $15.

In the glass it's a pale rose purple with a very subtle nose, there's a lot of heat - the alcohol is 15.5% so...

I'd been informed that this would benefit from some decanting and some air, so I poured it and let it sit in the decanter for a good hour before I sipped it. The first sip was pleasant - fruity with a long, long complex chocolatey finish. Very decent. I had a glass and really enjoyed it, it's wonderfully fruity and complex. And, I'm going to break every rule in the wine world by admitting it - this stuff gets you drunk. So I had a couple of glasses left in the decanter, and I went out and did what I do on a weeknight and returned home about 3 hours later. I noticed the decanter and grabbed a glass wondering how it had matured throughout the evening.

Wow. WOW. The wine had matured into an amazing combination of ripe fruits and jammy complexity. The difference a few hours made was pretty stunning. In fact, the first sip I had after letting it air was so good I regretted drinking so much of it initially.

So - bottom line on Klinker Brick's 2005 Old Vine Zinfandel? Good stuff, great for the price, open it it early and let it get some air and you'll be pleased. Klinker Brick says, "Our Klinker Brick 2005 Old Vine Zinfandel may be the very best we have produced to date with full, juicy flavors of cherries and plums coupled with the perfect balance of oak and spice." I agree.

Price: $15 (Out West). Closure: Natural cork. Alcohol content: 15.5%.

2004 Château La Nerthe Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Last week I was skimming a wine book and came to the chapter on Chateauneuf-du-Pape, prior to this I'd thought, for some reason, that the percentages in a CNdP blend were fixed. In fact, they are not and and vary quite a bit among the different wineries. Typically the blend is mostly Grenache, with a minority of  Syrah, Mourvedre or Cinsault, but may also contain Counoise, Muscardin, Picpoul, Clairette, Bourboulenc, Roussanne, Terret Noir, Picardan or Vaccarese. I'd be lying if I said that I knew what any of those were beyond the first 4.

But what caught my eye was the Grenache. Coming off last week's write up of 2006 Bitch Grenache I was interested in trying an old world Grenache and shot down to my local wine merchant with valid ID and a crisp $50 in my pocket. I asked around among the staff to see if I could locate the CNdP with the highest percentage of Grenache, but was out of luck - nobody really knew. I took a recco from the staff and picked up this bottle - the 2004 Chateau La Nerthe at $49.99.

I got it home and figured I'd give it a taste and see if I could guess the percentages before I looked it up. Color wise - in the glass it was a deep purple. It has a fairly typical 14% alchohol which gave it some heat in the nose. The first taste didn't give me the Grenache flavor I was looking for and my first guess is that this was on the low end, blend wise.

A little research turned up the following percentages: 56% Grenache, 24% syrah, 12% Mourvedre. I was really looking for something a little lighter up around 80-85% Grenache.

While I was a little disappointed at not finding exactly what I was looking for, I wasn't disappointed with the bottle. It's a nicely complex wine - earthy, great on the palate and very few tannins.

Price: $49.99 (Out West). Closure: Real cork. Alcohol content: 14%.

Jim Freeway Intro | Bitch Grenache 2006

Hi there - Jim here. Not Jerry, obviously. Not long ago I'd noticed that Jerry had gone on hiatus and I offered to help out with Wine Waves. Jerry kindly agreed, so here goes -

As it happens, the wine I was drinking when I made the offer was the latest released of R Wines' Bitch Grenache. You can find Jerry's write up on the 2005 Bitch Grenache here. Having discovered Bitch on a whim last summer when the temperature climbed a little too high for an evening glass of claret and a friend suggested that I try a grenache, I often turn to it on a warm evening.

I was, as you should be, pleased to see that the Bitch is a product of R Wines and imported by the kind folks at The Grateful Palate. This is the same duo that brings you a multitude of other be-screw-topped gems including Boarding Pass Shiraz and the Marquis Phillips Cabernet. (Both of which I have on hand and will be profiling in the near future.) Among those three, Bitch is the lowest priced at my local wine shop at just $10.99. To be honest, there is not a lot of wine at $11 that I enjoy drinking. And looking like a Sex in the City promotional item doesn't help either...but once you crack the top and spin it off, all sins are forgiven.

In the glass it's clearly not a full bodied wine. Really, from across the room you could mistake it for cranberry juice. It's a charmingly light ruby in color. As light as it appears in the glass, however, it is not (as some less expensive Australians are - especially shiraz) watery. In fact, going in to catch the nose you're surprised at the amount of heat. While grenache do not tend to be especially fragrant, a moon shine like alcohol content doesn't exactly help. One thing you notice right away, as well, are the incredible legs.

Anyway, enough swirling, down the hatch I say! I will admit upfront that aside from the Bitch I have had only one other grenache and it would be difficult to say either was completely typical of the varietal. But how important is that in an $11 bottle with a screw top? What you really want to know is - is this a good bottle of wine for the price, should I buy this bottle of wine, would I enjoy this bottle of wine? Well, yes, yes, and that depends on your palate, my friend.

Right off you'll notice that the Bitch is sweet, there are notes of cranberry and strawberry. If higher alcohol wines aren't your thing, steer clear, this is probably not for you, while the alcohol doesn't compromise the taste, it's omnipresent. I quite like the integration, the result is a light, but flavor packed wine that feels almost carbonated on your tongue.

In short, the 2006 Bitch is ...bitchin'?

Price (Out West): $10.99. Closure: Screw top. Alcohol content: 15% (yow!).