2006 Ravenswood Petit Sirah

Last week I received my copy of Esquin's monthly newsletter, and I highlighted several tempting bargains. After work tonight, Jenny and I drove down and picked up a case from my selections.

This bottle is a bit of a dud. It has a toasty scent, and a strange initial flavor that Jenny describes as "stale." On the upside, once you get past the initial wave, I get a concentrated, almost syrupy cherry flavor, and a whiff of vanilla as if it were aged in oak (I've googled a bit and can neither confirm nor refute this suspicion).

I can't recall the price, though it was under $10. I wouldn't buy it again.

Tenuta Ponte - 2007 Coda Di Volpe

This wine is all over the place. I've seen it in restaurants, grocery stores, and at McCarthy and Schiering (though not for a while). Coda Di Volpe is an obscure varietal (the Wine Lover's Companion is silent) of ancient origins commonly grown in Campania. This bottle hails from Irpina, just a few miles from Napoli.

The wine has good body, with full fruit flavor and honey that reminds me of good Viogner, if somewhat less intense. It runs about $12, and is a reasonable buy at that price, but not a steal.

2004 Lan Rioja

A great bargain at $11 from McCarthy and Schiering. Totally delicious with a gentle perfumey vanilla scent from oak aging. I wrote about this wine in the pre-blog days, but I haven't seen it for a while. I'm going to order a case before it disappears again.

Verdier and Logel - 2006 Cotes du Forez

This stuff is crazy. It's got an intensely herbal nose, and a smoky flavor. The scent combined with the somewhat dusty tannins made me think it was Cabernet Franc, but it's 100% Gamay. I have another bottle by the same maker; I plan to drink it in the next couple days, and I'll report my fingings here.

Cotes du Forez is apparently a little known French appelation. None of my books mention it, but the French wikipedia has an article. If only I could read French.

$13 from McCarthy and Schiering. I liked it, it's worth buying just for the experience.

Jaboulet 2005 Muscat De Beaumes-De-Venise

I stayed late at work tonight, so late that I missed the last express bus home. I originally planned to take the bus tunnel to the SLUT, and walk home the rest of the way, but Jenny offered to meet me at Whole Foods where we could shop for dinner groceries and drive home together.

While wandering around picking up dinner groceries, Jenny broached the idea of dessert. Originally she wanted chocolate or something from the pasty case, but when I suggested cheese and dessert wine, she quickly came around to my way of thinking.

For the cheese, we got a mini Cheverot, a French goat cheese made by Cooperative Sevre-et-Belle in Poitou. Steve Jenkins in his Cheese Primer says he "never has tasted better goat cheese." This one we had tonight has young, so tasted sweet, but still had nice piquant goat cheese flavor.

The dessert wine selection at Whole Foods is somewhat limited (dozens of ports, 2 sauternes, 1 muscat, a handful of random domestic dessert wines), but this muscat seemed a good choice. Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise is an AC in France's Rhone region. The wines produced there are "vin doux naturel" or natually sweet wines. They are produced from grapes that are naturally high in sugar and then fortified with neutral flavored alcohol. This bottle has lovely honey flavor and floral nose. It was a superb companion to the cheese and the first honeycrisp apple of the season.

All in all, an exceptionally delicious dessert course.

Value is suddenly fashionable

You know the economy is in trouble when Eric Asimov at the New York Times writes an article on finding good wine values. His most salient advice: "Even with the pitiful exchange rate, France is the greatest source of wine bargains in the world."

This blog is squarely focused on value wines, and this seems a good opportunity to thank my friend JJ for instilling in me the importance of seeking "value" in all things, not least culinary pleasures. Any idiot can get satisfactory food and wine by spending a lot of money, but the real joy is in finding superlative food and wine in more modest venues at lower prices.

2006 Domaine de Montine - Coteaux Du Tricastin

The Coteaux Du Tricastin appellation in situated in the south of France's Rhone region. Many varietals are grown there, and I'm not adept enough to discern which one dominates this wine. Either way, I wasn't very happy with this bottle as it's flavor profile was dominated by earthy tobacco flavors (Jenny described it as "dusty" and "rustic"). The small amount of fruit flavors present were very dark, running dangerously close to bitter.

$12 at McCarthy and Schiering. I won't buy more.