Treana White 2007
When I first tasted Treana it was several years ago and being the “red wine snob” that I can be it was the vibrant and powerful red blend, a great wine in the $40 price range. When I learned that at the Fruit Center we were bringing in the white variety I was excited! The Hope family of Pasa Robles with Austin at the helm have been innovative winemakers. The Treana White is no exception. Some of the “Rhone Rangers” out in the Ca. we think of as only red wine devotees but this white wine is very unusual, in that, it brings two big Rhone white varietals together in the same bottle with delicious results. The Hope operation likes to refer to its wines as “HIGH IN DELICIOSITY”. This wine is a blend of 53% Viognier and 47% Marsanne.
This is extremely unusual for a California white wine. What is not so unusual is that more and more Ca. winemakers are using a combination of oak and stainless-steel in the fermentation process to help keep a lot of the fruit flavors intact. Here, Austin ferments 10% of the juice in steel. The balance sees 8 months in French oak aging and then is blended before bottling
The result is pure elegance with the possibility of cellaring over the next decade! The wine is intensely aromatic with stone fruit flavors. You just want to hold this liquid in your mouth. There is great structure and complexity to the wine. Of course I had to grill up a juicy swordfish steak with my bottle!
You are thinking, Alan what’s the price for this gem? While it lasts, we have it at the Fruit Center for a mere $15.99. After that we can order it for you at its normal price $23.99
News Flash
Two big dates coming up:
This Friday April 30 6:00-8:00 the Fruit Center Spring Collection featuring the unveiling of our great Rose’s for the season in addition to some light fare for the summer with Scott Weinstein of Baystate Wines
Thursday May 13 at 6pm Skinner’s Fine Wine Auction with Lower Falls Wine Co. If you have not attended a wine auction this is great fun! There are 484 different lots to be gaveled. For more info contact: www.skinnerinc.com You can actually view all the lots on line. There are some exceptional ones!
Cheers
Alan
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
More Than Just Nouveau
More than Just Nouveau
One of my favorite topics of discussion is Beaujolais, the wine that so many people seem to love to hate. Of course they are thinking about that Nouveau juice that comes out every third week in November in pretty flowered bottles with usually Georges Duboeuf’s name on the label. It is light and fruity and goes well with turkey. Not meant for ageing, it should be consumed over the holidays. I have enjoyed bottles of this over time and it is always a fun seasonal kind of wine. BUT… Nouveau is not where Beaujolais ends. Far from it!! It extends far from the classic bistro wine of Paris that is served in pint glass bottles known as pot.
The Gamay grape, which the Duke of Burgundy, Philippe the Bold outlawed in 1395 calling it “a very bad and disloyal plant” produces more wine than the rest of Burgundy combined. There are more than 96 villages producing wine in the region. This translates to over75 million bottles produced a year!!
My focus here, is Cru Beaujolais, the highest classification of wines in the region. There are ten different villages that produce quite different wines even though, they are using the same Gamay grape. Unlike their Nouveau cousin that makes use of carbonic maceration so that fermentation can take place in as little as four days, these wines have a longer fermentation time which equals more tannins and a fuller body. You also have a range of soil types and vineyard altitudes with upper slopes having schist and granite based soils with a touch of limestone and the lower slopes having soils made up of clay and stone. This in part, accounts for the different flavors imparted from each village wine.
I have divided the villages into three sections: light bodied, medium bodied and full bodied. The wines from this first section are meant to be drunk with three years of the vintage. They are Brouilly, Regnie and Chiroubles. Brouilly is the largest of all the Crus . Regnie is believed by locals the first vineyards planted by the Romans. The wines here are a little more full-bodied . Chiroubles wines are known for delicate wines with aromas of violets.
The next group are medium-bodied and can use a year of ageing in the bottle and then can be drunk within four years of the vintage. Cote de Brouilly, Fleurie and Saint Amour make up this group. The wines of the Cote, (slope), are less earthy and much more concentrated then their neighboring Brouilly. Fleurie is widely distributed in the U.S. so may sound familiar to some of you. These wines are among my favorites and have a velvety smoothness to them. They also can last up to 16 years! Saint –Amour wines are a little more spicy and can have pleasing peach aromas. These wines can have a cellar life of up to 12 years.
The last group is made up of the villages of Chenas, Julienas, Morgon and Moulin-a-Vent. The wines in this group can develop such structure and complexity that they can rival other Burgundian reds. Who would have thought that Beaujolais could produce wines like these when critics have often used the word JELLO to describe the regions flavors!! Chenas is the smallest of the Crus and sticking your nose into a glass of this and you can smell wild roses. These wines can last up to 15 years. Julienas is named after Julius Caesar a big wine drinker during his time who spent time here during his conquest of Gaul. There are deep rich and spicy flavors in these wines. Morgon is my all time favorite Beaujolais and is very dark in color and has a lingering silky finish. I also love their apricot and peachy nose. Moulin-a-Vent comes in a close second and you have to look twice at the label to believe that it is a Beaujolais. These wines are the longest lasting and most structured of the group. These wines can go up to20 years in the bottle. These wines see more oak ageing and may often have futs de chene, (oak casks), on the label.
My challenge to you is go out and find and try some of these “other” Beaujolais. I am sure that you will agree with my friend, N.Y. Times wine critic Eric Asimov, that these wines are “seductive” with surprising complexity. They are more than just Nouveau.
Cheers
Alan
One of my favorite topics of discussion is Beaujolais, the wine that so many people seem to love to hate. Of course they are thinking about that Nouveau juice that comes out every third week in November in pretty flowered bottles with usually Georges Duboeuf’s name on the label. It is light and fruity and goes well with turkey. Not meant for ageing, it should be consumed over the holidays. I have enjoyed bottles of this over time and it is always a fun seasonal kind of wine. BUT… Nouveau is not where Beaujolais ends. Far from it!! It extends far from the classic bistro wine of Paris that is served in pint glass bottles known as pot.
The Gamay grape, which the Duke of Burgundy, Philippe the Bold outlawed in 1395 calling it “a very bad and disloyal plant” produces more wine than the rest of Burgundy combined. There are more than 96 villages producing wine in the region. This translates to over75 million bottles produced a year!!
My focus here, is Cru Beaujolais, the highest classification of wines in the region. There are ten different villages that produce quite different wines even though, they are using the same Gamay grape. Unlike their Nouveau cousin that makes use of carbonic maceration so that fermentation can take place in as little as four days, these wines have a longer fermentation time which equals more tannins and a fuller body. You also have a range of soil types and vineyard altitudes with upper slopes having schist and granite based soils with a touch of limestone and the lower slopes having soils made up of clay and stone. This in part, accounts for the different flavors imparted from each village wine.
I have divided the villages into three sections: light bodied, medium bodied and full bodied. The wines from this first section are meant to be drunk with three years of the vintage. They are Brouilly, Regnie and Chiroubles. Brouilly is the largest of all the Crus . Regnie is believed by locals the first vineyards planted by the Romans. The wines here are a little more full-bodied . Chiroubles wines are known for delicate wines with aromas of violets.
The next group are medium-bodied and can use a year of ageing in the bottle and then can be drunk within four years of the vintage. Cote de Brouilly, Fleurie and Saint Amour make up this group. The wines of the Cote, (slope), are less earthy and much more concentrated then their neighboring Brouilly. Fleurie is widely distributed in the U.S. so may sound familiar to some of you. These wines are among my favorites and have a velvety smoothness to them. They also can last up to 16 years! Saint –Amour wines are a little more spicy and can have pleasing peach aromas. These wines can have a cellar life of up to 12 years.
The last group is made up of the villages of Chenas, Julienas, Morgon and Moulin-a-Vent. The wines in this group can develop such structure and complexity that they can rival other Burgundian reds. Who would have thought that Beaujolais could produce wines like these when critics have often used the word JELLO to describe the regions flavors!! Chenas is the smallest of the Crus and sticking your nose into a glass of this and you can smell wild roses. These wines can last up to 15 years. Julienas is named after Julius Caesar a big wine drinker during his time who spent time here during his conquest of Gaul. There are deep rich and spicy flavors in these wines. Morgon is my all time favorite Beaujolais and is very dark in color and has a lingering silky finish. I also love their apricot and peachy nose. Moulin-a-Vent comes in a close second and you have to look twice at the label to believe that it is a Beaujolais. These wines are the longest lasting and most structured of the group. These wines can go up to20 years in the bottle. These wines see more oak ageing and may often have futs de chene, (oak casks), on the label.
My challenge to you is go out and find and try some of these “other” Beaujolais. I am sure that you will agree with my friend, N.Y. Times wine critic Eric Asimov, that these wines are “seductive” with surprising complexity. They are more than just Nouveau.
Cheers
Alan
Wine Of The Week!
WINE OF THE WEEK
Sorry to have been away for a while… personal matters… I have decided to debut a wine of the week piece featuring a great value wine for under $20. There are plenty of them out there!
This week’s wine is Guardian Peak Frontier 2007.this is a blend from South Africa. It is part of a project of the South African golfer Ernie Els and his friend wine maker Louis Stydom. The blend is 38% Cabernet, 35% Shiraz, and 27% Merlot. The three grapes were vinified separately for eight months and 10 months in French and American Oak. The juice then went thru two months of blending before arriving in the bottle.
This wine weighs in at 14.9% alc so it has some power behind it It is ripe and smoky with black cherry fruit flavors. As usual, any blend can bring so much complexity to a wine and this Frontier is no exception! This is a wonderful drinking experience. It should also mature and soften over the next five years
As an interesting aside, Ernie Els has an autistic child so is very committed to educating the public about Autism. You will be interested to know that a portion of the sale of this wine will go to the organization Autism Speaks. There are a number of wines out there these days that are tied to important causes. Not only can you enjoy a nice glass of wine but also know that you are helping! By the way we sell this wine for a mere $8.99 at the Fruit Center. Come in and try a bottle
Cheers
A
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)