2009 Turley Zinfandel Ueberroth Vineyard

2011 Poderi Luigi Einaudi Dolcetto Dogliani

2011 Buoncristiani OPC Proprietary Red

2007 Domaine de Piaugier Gigondas

N.V. Lucien Albrecht Crémant d’Alsace Brut Rosé

2006 Novy Family Wines Syrah Rosella’s Vineyard

 

 

2009 Turley Zinfandel Ueberroth Vineyard – $48.00

Ueberroth is my favorite vineyard source for Turley grapes that is not named Hayne.  This vineyard generally yields a big, full bodied wine with loads of pepper and spice.  In a nutshell, this is the type of old vine Zinfandel that put Turley on the map.

 

The wine has 16.2% alcohol and the bottle is sealed with a natural cork.

 

My Tasting Note

The wine is a deep maroon color.  The exotic nose has brambly berries, crushed stones, white pepper, warm baking spices, potpourri, dried earth, plums, dark bittersweet chocolate and licorice.  This full bodied gem had moderate ripe tannins and very nice acidity.  On the palate berries, crushed stones, baking spices and white pepper immediately jump out with dried herbs and wildflowers quickly joining in.  The finish has outstanding length with dry earth and dark chocolate adding considerable depth.  This is in its’ prime drinking window and should hold until the end of the decade.  A quintessential Turley zin, ripe and rich with considerable power “under the hood”.  (95 pts)

 

 

2011 Poderi Luigi Einaudi Dolcetto Dogliani – $15.19

Who doesn’t love a glass of good Italian wine with a meal?  Italian wines all seem to have one thing in common, great natural acidity.  This acidity makes these wines some of the most food friendly wines out there.  Just like everywhere, good Italian wines can be costly.  Luckily, there are some very reasonably priced wines out there, besides Chianti, that can help provide a pleasing change of pace from your normal wine drinking routine.  Two very versatile grapes to seek out are Barbera and the basis for this post, Dolcetto.

 

This wine has 13.5% alcohol and the bottle is sealed with a natural cork.

 

My Tasting Note

The wine is a medium to dark ruby color.  The inviting nose has plum, black cherry, dusty minerals, licorice, cocoa powder and wildflowers.  This has medium body, soft to moderate tannins and good acidity.  On the palate nice fruit and minerals hit first, followed by cocoa.  The finish has decent length with a floral note coming into focus.  This is easy to pair with food but is also tasty on its own.  (90 pts)

 

 

2011 Buoncristiani OPC Proprietary Red – $46.66

This is a blend of 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Syrah, 15% Malbec and 11% Merlot from various vineyards including Hyde, Stagecoach, Hossfeld, Tench and Bennett.  OPC stands for “Ol’ Pa’s Cuvée”

 

This has 14.4% alcohol and the bottle sealed with a natural cork.

 

My Tasting Note

The wine is a deep garnet color.  The outgoing and enticing nose has cassis, dusty minerals, cherries, warm baking spices, roasted leafy herbs, scorched earth, fresh ground espresso beans, dark chocolate and dried violets.  This has medium body with moderate tannins and very nice acidity.  On the palate cassis, baking spices, cherries and dusty minerals dominate the front end with roasted herbs and espresso beans coming in on the back end.  The long finish adds dark chocolate and a dried floral note.  This may be on the young side but it is already stunning.  (94 pts)

 

 

2007 Domaine de Piaugier Gigondas – $16.99

I ordered this in late 2008 from Garagiste.  By the time it arrived in their Washington warehouse all my other wines had shipped.  I cut down on my Garagiste purchases, so I received free storage for a couple of years.  I figured the wine was approaching a nice drinking window, so I made sure to order enough wine that these bottles would fill a case and be shipped.  This is my fourth of the six bottles I purchased.  To me, Gigondas is a very unheralded area in the Rhone region of France.  These wines usually have a bit more richness than a Cotes du Rhone but in a lot of cases, they only cost a few dollars more.

 

Winery history

Alphonse Vautour, Jean-Marc Autran’s great-grandfather, made his wine in a cellar at the top of a little hill called Les Briguières, to the south of Sablet where he owned six hectares of vines.  The winery was named Ténébi, after the previous owner of the house.

 

Alphonse had to go down the hill, his mules loaded with barrels, to wait for the wine merchant to come by.  If the merchant didn’t come, or didn’t buy his wine, he had to climb back up with his reluctant mules.  So, in 1947 he decided to build a new winery on the road below, where the Piaugier cellars are to this day.

 

Jean-Marc Autran, Alphonse’s great-grandson, took over the winery from his father Marc in 1985.  He acquired more vineyards and, with the assistance of his wife Sophie, started bottling and developed sales.  The winery soon became too small and they extended it in 1995 to enable them to age and store the wines in the best possible conditions.

 

In homage to this family history, Jean-Marc has dedicated a wine to his ancestor, the Réserve Alphonse Vautour, which is made from grapes grown in his original fields.

 

Today, Piaugier wines are sold as far away as the United States, Japan and Brazil.

 

Much more information is available at http://www.domainedepiaugier.com/en_index.htm

 

My Tasting Note

The wine is a bit darker than a medium ruby color. The very appealing nose has raspberries, baking spices, cherries, white pepper, dried herbs, fresh wild flowers, smoke, and a touch of earthy underbrush. This has medium body, fairly solid tannins, and good acidity. Spicy fruit hits the palate first, followed by nice dried herbs, pepper, and a touch of scorched earth. The finish has good length and leans more on the savory elements with the fruit providing nice background sweetness but it does lose some depth and richness. This is drinking very nicely today but can be enjoyed over the next few years.  (90 pts)

 

 

N.V. Lucien Albrecht Crémant d’Alsace Brut Rosé – $16.62

Domaine Lucien Albrecht is one of the oldest and leading Alsace family owned estate, tracing its roots back to 1425.  Through the Albrecht eighteen generations, they have become one of the largest owners of prime Alsace hillside vineyards.  In the early 70’s, Lucien Albrecht, the father of Jean, the current proprietor and winemaker, was one of the three founding fathers of the regulated Crémant d’Alsace.  In 2004, Lucien Albrecht Crémants made history.  At the 14th Concours National des Crémants de France (Crémant Wine Challenge), they stole the show, winning an unprecedented Four Gold Medals.

 

Lucien Albrecht Brut Rosé is made from 100% Pinot Noir.  The whole cluster hand-picked grapes are softly pressed in a pneumatic press, hence the coral, light pink salmon color.  Lucien Albrecht Brut Rosé is made by using the same methods as in Champagne, i.e “method traditionnelle”.  After the second fermentation in the bottle, lee ageing lasts for nine months, followed by remuage and disgorging.

 

This has 12.0% alcohol by volume.

 

My Tasting Note

The wine is a bright salmon pink color.  The enticing nose has cherries, strawberries, minerals, yeasty bread and a hint of citrus zest.  The wine has light body with crisp acidity and sporadic pinpoint bubbles after an initial blast of bubbles left a nice mousse.   Cherries, strawberries and minerals dominate the palate.  The finish has great length with just a hint of lingering sweetness.  Not a lot of complexity but very tasty.  (90 pts)

 

 

2006 Novy Family Wines Syrah Rosella’s Vineyard – $33.00

The wine is a dark ruby to purple color.  The exotic nose has blackberries, dead wood embers, fresh ground coffee beans, dark chocolate, citrus zest, roasted herbs, white pepper, dark chocolate and dried flowers.  This has medium body with moderate to solid tannins and very nice acidity.  On the palate smoky berries and coffee beans jump out first with dark chocolate and citrus zest coming in on the backend.  The finish has good length with white pepper coming into play.  This is drinking very nicely today but will hold for a few more years.  This is not a big fruit driven wine, the savory elements play a big role.  (92 pts)

 

 

Connect with me

You can follow me on Twitter for more wine info, potential food pairings, and an occasional recipe or two.  Be warned, I’m also a sports fan and there are occasional Pittsburgh Penguins, Steelers, and Pirates tweets.  I attended the University of South Carolina, so during football season, there will also be some Gamecock posts.

 

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Cheers!

 

 

This is original to CliffsWinePicks.com.  Copyright 2015 Cliff’s Wine Picks.

All rights reserved.

 

 

 

***** Shameless Self Promotion *****

 

Here is a link to a YouTube video of me getting “coal” from Santa for being named the “Nicest Person in Social Media” in 2012.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOvQTeGR3-c

 

 

 

Breaking news from Klout:

 

 

Cliff’s Wine Picks mentions or other posts

Here are posts, newsletters, blogs or other articles that either mention this site or that I have written:

 

Click here or on the “Cliff’s Wine Picks On Other Sites” link in the top right corner to see links to other sites that either have my reviews, my thoughts or other posts I have written.

 

 

 

Remember to support your local wine store!

 

 

 

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Notes – I use the “official” Cellar Tracker name for the wines.  I use Cellar Tracker to help manage and organize my cellar.  I highly recommend checking it out at www.cellartracker.com.  Loading you existing cellar is a lot less intimidating than it would first appear.  There is a good chance 99% of your wine is already in the system, so you generally only need to enter part of the wine’s name and the system will find it for you.

 

 

Prices noted are the prices I paid at the time of purchase.  I don’t shop around to find the best prices, but always check out the sale and close out items when in a store.  Wines purchased direct from a winery do not include any shipping charges.  None of the prices include the sales tax.

 

 

All wines that were sent to me free of charge to sample will be noted and I will show suggested prices when available.

 

 

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

2011 Myriad Cellars Sémillon McGah Family Vineyard

2011 Treasure Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

2009 Copain Pinot Noir Tous Ensemble

2011 One Time Spaceman MCA Rosé

2008 Turley Zinfandel Ueberroth Vineyard

 

 

2011 Myriad Cellars Sémillon McGah Family Vineyard – $24.00

When Mike Smith, the owner/wine maker of Myriad Cellars sent out an e-mail offer for this wine as well as three others with a total combined production of well under 200 total cases, I was lucky enough to get a small allocation.  This was one of those offers you couldn’t refuse.  There was a total production of only 48 cases of this wine.  How can you pass on a single vineyard, Rutherford Sémillon for $24?  I couldn’t!  In the same offer, I had to also grab a few bottles of their Rutherford sourced Petit Verdot, which had an even lower production of only 22 cases.

 

My Tasting Note

The wine is a bright yellow with a golden tint.  The crisp and clean nose has melon, pineapple, lemon zest, toasted almonds, minerals, spices, honey, and a very slight herbal note.  This has medium body, tart citrusy acidity, and a touch of tannins.  On the palate this has rich fruit and minerals up front with a big jolt of citrus coming in to hold everything together very nicely on the midpalate.  The finish has nice length with a touch of an herbal element coming into the picture.  This is drinking nicely, but seems to be on the young end of the drinking window.  This can be enjoyed now or over the next 4 years.  (92 pts)

 

 

 

2011 Treasure Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley – $28.49

This is a new purchase from this “négociant’ label.  The “winery” buys excess wine from traditional wineries, bottles it, and turns over their inventory fairly quickly.  The wineries are generally eager to sell off their unwanted wines so Treasure Hunter gets the juice at a VERY big discount.  One of the usual stipulations is that the source of the grapes/wine remains anonymous.  In this case, the name of the original winery was “accidentally” slipped, so I know who supposedly made the wine, but I’m sworn to secrecy.

 

Here is the info from Treasure Hunter’s website:

Occasionally we find a wine that is so special, it deserves it’s own label. This is one of those wines. It is a cult wine from a cult winery it just happens to cost a whole lot less. Lucky you.

 

If the source is accurate, the winery produces two cabernet sauvignons, the least expensive costs north of $100 a bottle.  The other cabernet produced by the winery has a community average cost on Cellar Tracker of well over $300 a bottle.

 

This wine is available for sell on the Treasure Cellars website for $45.00 a bottle, click here for more info.

 

My Tasting Note

The wine is a bright ruby red color.  The very inviting nose has cassis, dark bittersweet chocolate, dried herbs, eucalyptus, cherries, minerals, cigar box, and some “Rutherford Dust” (if this is from Rutherford).  This has medium body, fairly solid tannins, and very good acidity.  On the palate big cassis and eucalyptus grab hold eventually allowing cherries, dark chocolate, and some dried herbs enter into the mix.  The finish has very good length with a very slight green herbaceous element creeping in on the back end.  This is extremely young and has a very bright future.  Even at this early stage in its development, the wine has impeccable balance.  I’m sure with some cellar time the slight green element will integrate.  This rating is totally out the window in another couple years.  (92 pts)

 

 

 

2009 Copain Pinot Noir Tous Ensemble – $25.00

I’ve slowed down my Copain purchases over the last couple of years, but I’m still a big fan of their “Tous Ensemble” wines.  To me, the Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Rosé all have quality that greatly exceeds their price points.  This has been a consistently good $25 Anderson Valley Pinot that is comparable to $40 or higher wines from the area.

 

This was Copain’s effort to put out a value priced, mid-level, appellation branded level of wines.  The Copain Tous Ensemble line up has grown to now include Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Roussanne, Viognier, and a Rosé.  In my opinion, the Copain Tous Ensemble lineup offers stunning quality for the price.  I’ve had and greatly enjoyed multiple vintages of the Syrah, Pinot Noir, and the Rosé.  I believe these wines have some distribution, I highly recommend grabbing a bottle to sample if you see one on your local wine store’s shelf.

 

My Tasting Note

The wine is a light to medium ruby red color.  The slightly reserved nose has cherries, baking spices, raspberries, orange zest, minerals, and a bit of earthiness and smoke.  This is barely medium body with soft, silky tannins, and very good acidity.  Much more open and robust on the palate with tart cherries, juicy raspberries, spice and some earthiness taking turns leading the charge.  The finish has decent length with a touch of orange zest and spice lingering nicely.  This is a very nice, nuanced, California Pinot with very good balance.  (90 pts)

 

 

 

2011 One Time Spaceman MCA Rosé – $15.21

This bottle is a leftover from last Summer.  I’ve had this several times and it’s a very nice, easy drinking, fruity Rosé.  This is just a touch soft and shows a touch of sweetness, making it a great, easy drinker on a nice, sunny day.  This is a Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre blend from Paso Robles.  The winemaker, Mark Adams, is a rising star in my opinion.  Besides the One Time Spaceman label, he has another label called Ledge.  I recommend doing a Google search for them and joining the mailing list.  Mark is also the assistant winemaker for a small Paso Robles winery you may have heard of, Saxum.  In his spare time, he is also a musician.  Check out his latest offering, Panjanatan, I know it’s available on Amazon, that’s where I bought it, and probably other places as well.

 

My Tasting Note

The wine is a bright pinkish salmon color.  The fresh smelling nose has watermelon, strawberries, cherries, white peaches, white pepper, orange zest, and just a hint of earthiness.  This has medium body with nice acidity and just a touch of sweetness.  On the palate, nice red fruit and spice steal the show with a touch of white pepper and orange zest coming in on the back end.  The finish is crisp and clean and has nice length.  This is an easy drinking rosé, perfect for a warm, sunny afternoon.  (89 pts)

 

 

 

2008 Turley Zinfandel Ueberroth Vineyard – $48.00

Ueberroth is my favorite vineyard source for Turley grapes that is not named Hayne.  This vineyard generally yields a big, full bodied wine with loads of pepper and spice.  In a nutshell, this is the type of old vine Zinfandel that put Turley on the map.

 

My Tasting Note

The wine is a deep, dark garnet color.  The classic zin nose is full of crushed briary berries, black pepper, minerals, wild flowers, and warm baking spices.  This full bodied wine has moderate ripe tannins and good acidity.  On the palate the pepper dusted berries steal the show with nice building minerality on the back end.  The long, lingering finish again shows a boat load of minerals and peppery berries with a bit of earthiness also coming into the picture.  This carries its 15.9% alcohol and keeps it under wraps with only slight glimpses peaking out every once in a while.  (94 pts)

 

 

 

The evolution of our holiday dinner:

 

A rack of ribs and a beef brisket:

 

Apply a nice coating of a personally prepared dry rub:

 

Wrap the meat in plastic wrap and pop in the fridge for at least 12 hours.

 

Remove meat from the fridge and unwrap.  The dry rub will have drawn out some of the juices in the meat, broken down, and will have soaked into the meat.  Ready for the smoke.

 

After about 7 hours of smoke at about 250 degrees, I wrap the meat in some foil for about 45 minutes to an hour.  This helps the meat “pull back” a bit on the bone.  This makes the ribs a bit easier to handle and admit it, it just looks cool.

 

Here’s a picture of the finished beef brisket:

 

The Turley Zinfandel paired perfectly with this meat.  The big, bold flavors of the zin held up well against the equally big flavors from the meat, dry rub, and smoke.

 

 

 

***** Shameless Self Promotion *****

 

Here is a link to a YouTube video of me getting “coal” from Santa for being named the “Nicest Person in Social Media” in 2012.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOvQTeGR3-c

 

 

 

Breaking news from Klout:

 

 

 

 

Remember to support your local wine store!

 

 

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

Notes – I use the “official” Cellar Tracker name for the wines.  I use Cellar Tracker to help manage and organize my cellar.  I highly recommend checking it out at www.cellartracker.com.  Loading you existing cellar is a lot less intimidating than it would first appear.  There is a good chance 99% of your wine is already in the system, so you generally only need to enter part of the wine’s name and the system will find it for you.

 

 

Prices noted are the prices I paid at the time of purchase.  I don’t shop around to find the best prices, but my local store is usually VERY competitive.  I generally get case discounts, and since I work there part time, I get a 5% discount.  Wines purchased direct from a winery do not include any shipping charges.  None of the prices include the sales tax.

 

 

All wines that were sent to me free of charge to sample will be noted and I will show suggested prices when available.

 

 

 

Cheers!