2005 Cuilleron Roussanne – Vin de Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes (France – Rhone)

Straw colored. Very floral with some lemon and just a hint of orange peel. This really smells like flowers though. Which ones… I can’t place them. I’m not a florist. Soft texture as the floral notes come through on the taste as well. However, this is another guess as I’ve never actually tasted flowers. Medium long finish.

A very good B+ wine for its uniqueness. $16 at Garnet Wines.

2004 Regis Minet Pouilly Fume – Vielles Vignes (France – Loire Valley)

Straw yellow in color. You’d especially know the color if you’ve spent any time on a farm pitching hay. Not that I have that much experience. Very floral nose with a lot going on. Honey suckle and definitely some other floral note I can’t quite pinpoint. Light lemon citrus underneath. Soft texture with a light touch of acidity which works very well with this wine. Medium long finish with another hint of that lemon.

Purchased at Brooklyn Wine Exchange for $20.

1994 Bovio Borolo – Vinga Arabrina (Italy-Piedmont)

Ruby red color. Very spicy on the nose with notes of nutmeg and light hints of cedar with the last bits of primary fruit peeping through. Notably cherry mixed in with some spice. Medium bodied with a medium long finish and a tannic, chewy grip. It just does not last that long.

This is a B grade wine whose time has come to drink up. Originally purchased from Pascal’s Liquor Square in Syracuse for approximately $25 as a gift to one of my groomsmen at my wedding.

2000 Chateau L’Enclos (Bordeaux–Pomerol)

Brick red in color. Rasberry aroma at first that fades into the background revealing a more woodsy/earthy characteristic with dark fruit and tabac. Dry with a tannic feel to it. Medium long finish but overall a little hallow on the palate.

B- wine that was part of a Wine.com club shipment.

1993 Zilliken – Saarburger Rausch – Riesling Spatlese (Germany – Mosel-Saar-Ruwar)

This is another fine example of that can happen when you put some age on an affordable bottle of wine that can stand time in the cellar. Rieslings are known to be able to do that and if this is what I have to look forward to with some of the bottles I have in my cellar…

Straw colored with a primarily lime scented nose mixed in with a little apricot and some lingering floral notes. There’s also honeysuckle and just a whiff of petrol. It has a perfect touch of acidity with a citrus-lime taste along with a little bit of melon. Ends with a long lingering finish.

A standout A+ wine that I purchased for a mere $20 from Crush. A testament that there are affordable, phenomenal wines out there for a really good price. You just have to do your homework or at the least, make sure you are one some store e-mail lists!

2005 Beckman – Le Bec Blanc (Santa Ynez Valley)

Beckman Vineyards is in the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County and this wine is a Rhone blend of Rousanne, Marsanne & Grenache Blanc.

It’s light golden colored with lovely aromatics of cloves and apricots along with lighter hints of citrus, nutmeg and caramel. The nutmeg, clove and caramel also come on in the taste with a dash of lemon peel. It’s a medium to full bodied wine with a long finish.

Overall a food solid B wine what’s a great example of some of the Rhone blends currently being made in Central California. This bottle was $20 from Chelsea Wine Vault and worth picking up a bottle.

1998 Montiano – Falesco (Italy–Lazio)

Falesco's Montiano. One of the finest Merlot wines I've ever had. I love re-tasting good wines and there is a reason why this is one of my favorites!

Dark garnet in color with a wonderful earthy aroma. Lots of underbrush. Blueberry. Blackberry. Currant. Notes of tar. Tabac leaf. Red currant to add just a bit of brightness to it. Smooth and silky texture with fine tannins that lead to a nice long finish. (At this point Tahirih chimes in with “Forest floor… Gooseberry… Brambleberry…” Is she making fun of me?!)

This is an A+ wine at its peak. Too bad it’s my last bottle.

Vereinigte Hospitien Schavzhofberger Riesling Spatlese (Germany – Mosel-Saar-Ruwar)

Light golden hue. Floral nose with notes of orange peel and a hint of petrol. There’s also some honeydew and melon so there’s a lot going on here. Leeche taste with the sugar clinging to the tongue for a medium long finish.

A very nice, solid B wine that was given to us as a gift from my sister Cindy and her fiancée Israel. What’s nice about receiving wine as a gift is that you get the opportunity to think about how nice the people who gave it to you are. And I’m not just saying that because they’re family!

2003 Chateau de Clotte (Bordeaux-Cotes de Castillion)

Deep purple and inky color. Dark earthy fruit up front, most notably of currants and blueberry. Just a slight hint of oak. Dry velvety with a lot of grip and a long finish.

A good wine that I’d give a B to and especially affordable in an expensive Bordeaux vintage at $16 from Wine.com.

2005 Qupe - Bien Nacido Cuvee (Santa Maria Valley)

This is from Santa Barbara County's Qupe Vineyards who are known for their Central Coast Rhone Varietals. This is a blend of 50% Chardonnay and 50% Viognay from a rather well know vineyard in Santa Barbara County called Bien Nacido.

The wine is a vibrant yellow color with nice aromas of citrus, hey, and a floral element. Very pleasant. Citrus on the taste. Some orange. Medium bodied that leads to a lasting finish. The only real knock on this wine is that it’s a bit too acidic and that puts it slightly off balance for me. Slightly too much acidity for its weight.

A decent effort but really a B- wine for my tastes. $20 from T.B. Atkerson Wine in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn.

1995 Chateau Gloria (Bordeaux–St. Julien)

This wine exemplifies what a little age (in this case 12 years) can do for an affordable bottle of Bordeaux.

Deep red color. Nice aroma which is a mix of cedar and tabac, leather, and dark earthy fruit. Black currant becomes more evident on the taste. The tannins have softened with the bottle age (or I’m assuming they have as this is the first time I’ve having this vintage.) The soft texture leads to a nice long finish.

A solid B+ wine that I purchased for $25 from the online WineBid.com auction.

2003 Chateau La Vieille Cure (Bordeaux-Fronsac)

This a young wine but I have four more bottles of this and can’t wait to see how it develops over time.

Dark garnet color. Aromas of blackberry, cassis, lead pencil, cedar, and general dark fruit. Loads of tannins and a velvety texture with a long juicy finish. I generally like Bordeaux wines and thing this is going to be fantastic down the road. I’ll give it about three to five years before opening the next bottle.

$25 from Morrell Wines and brought as a future.

2005 Mollydooker Shiraz – The Boxer (Australia-McLaren Vale)

Living up to its name, this wine will KNOCK YOU OUT! Big… That’s the operative word here.

Inky purple-black color. Lots of different aromas going on. Prunes. Blackberry. Dark cherry (to give it a “lighter” note.) It’s also slightly earthy with faint wood and cedar aspects. A “juicy” wine with gobs of fruit through. Namely prunes. Figs. Spices as well, especially on the finish which is very long. The texture is velvety and creamy in a way. There is also a nice surprise at the end which is a bitter chocolate aftertaste if you wait it out long enough as the finish lasts for almost a minute.

If you are a fan of this style of wine, you’re probably going to like it. After all, Robert Parker did give it a 95 score! However, if this style isn’t for you, it’ll be hard to get past the first impressions it leaves.

I’m on the fence on this wine. For aromatics and general complexity, I think its an A. As for my own style and preference, I don’t think I could drink this too often.

$25 at Zachy’s although the 2006 version of this is coming out now.

2003 Chateau Ste. Michelle – Indian Wells – Cabernet Sauvignon (Washington)

Deep garnet color. Blackberry currant and kirsch. Generally “juicy” with dark fruit and toasted oak underneath. Earth and very thick in texture. Very aromatic as well with nice tannins and good balance. Lingering finish. Very nice for the $17 paid at Liquor City in Syracuse, New York. An A grade wine for the value.

2001 Zilliken – Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Kabinett “Forstmeister Geltz” (Germany - Mosel-Saar-Ruwar

Light straw/hay colored. Aromas of lemon and lighter tropical fruits and floral notes. Sweet but not cloyingly so. There’s also a pineapple taste that comes through. Light on the acidity which makes this an ok but not a perfectly balanced wine. Medium short finish.
A good effort and a decent food wine but really a B- . This was $20 at Crush Wine.

2005 Casa Lapostolle Cuvee Alexandre – Apalta Vineyard – Cabernet Sauvignon (Chile)

Another big wine which is also on the “jammy” side. Plum and fig with maybe a whisper of raspberry on the nose. Fig is also apparent on the taste along with some chocolate notes. Dry… and very velvety texture and a long finish. This was $15 from PJ Wines on sale but it typically retails for $20 to $25 dollars. At the sale price, this is a very good value for the money and a B+ wine for my tastes.

2005 Layer Cake Shiraz (South Australia– Barossa Valley)

Big! Dark purple in color. Actually, it’s almost opaque. Notes of kirsch and raspberry but generally… gobs of fruit with some cedar notes underneath. The raspberry really comes out on the palate. Thick texture with a medium long finish. This is a high alcohol (15%), high octane wine that you’ll probably like if you’re a fan of this style. This was a $16 purchase from Garnet but I’ve seen it elsewhere as well. For my tastes… it’s a B grade wine.

2005 Belle Glos Pinot Noir – Clark & Telephone Vineyard (California)

The Belle Glos - Clark & Telephone Vineyard is a Pinot Noir from the Santa Maria Valley in the Central Coast region of Califorina. The wine is cherry red in color. Bright fruit aroma of strawberry and some raspberry but there’s also an earthiness there, exhibited by tabac and smoky notes. Creamy texture and a medium long finish. Good enough for a B grade. Nice but not outstanding.

2004 Coren Pere & Fils Pouilly-Fuissé (France-Burgundy)

One of the things I like to do is check out new wine shops. What usually happens is that I go in, check out the place, look at the prices and compare them in my head to what I think they should be. (I’m usually disappointed.) Then I buy a bottle of something. Sometimes I’m lucky and the shop has a bottle open to sample or a tasting going on.

This is what happened with this wine. The 2004 Coren Pere & Fils Pouilly-Fuissé was being poured by the chateau owner at the Brooklyn Wine Exchange on Vanderbilt Ave.

The wine… Light golden colored. The nose is very floral and an actual florist could probably nail down a specific scent but I certainly can’t. Underneath this are very light and lovely hints of almond and citrus, almost like an almond cake. Smooth texture with a little zip of acidity and an easy finish. Nice wine that I would give a B to. We bought it for $25 and thought it was worth the price.

2000 Cellole Chianti Classico Riserva (Italy-Tuscany)

It’s winter and I’m on a “hearty red Italian wine” kick. The 2000 Cellole is another product of our Honeymoon in Tuscany two and a half years ago. I had first read about the 2001 Cellole in Wine Spectator then and liked what I had read. Wine Spectator game it a 95 score which made it predictably hard to find, saying it had a "phenomenal nose, with complex smoky, tarry, licoricelike red fruit aromas" and that it was "full-bodied, with added tobacco and vanilla coming through on the palate, with silky tannins and a long, minerally finish."

We eventually found the wine in Florence on the wine list at Cibreo, a restaurant known in Florence for its somewhat out there dishes like duck esophagus (which I had and liked) and a strange take on braised beef (which my wife had and didn’t like as much.) The thing we agreed on was the wine. After that dinner, we looked around for a bottle to take home but came up empty with the 2001 vintage but we did score on the 2000 from a fantastic wine shop in Grieve where they have samples, for a fee, of close to 100 wines dispensed from enotec machines as well as samples of Tuscan olive oils.

Luckily, this wine did not have to live up to the lofty expectations and memories associated with the 1998 Poggio Antico Altero but because of the search we went through in Italy trying to find a bottle, there was some nervousness. Would it live up?

Yes, but not because it reminded us of our experience in Florence. It was just a good wine that exhibited characteristics we like.

The wine… Tahirih got it right away when she said “It’s like walking through a thicket!” This wine is earthy. It’s dark red in color with a beautiful earthy aroma, mixing in wind fruit and wood. The fruit is blackberry and fig although there might also be a light note of raspberry there to just give it a little bit of lightness. The wood is oak. There is a nice balance of tannins and acidity. The wine has a nice grip to it that leads to a long finish. A solid A grade and not because of the memories of Italy. This is just a good wine.

1998 Poggio Antico Altero - Brunello di Montalcino (Italy-Tuscany)

What I look for in a birthday wine is a memory. Not the memory of a wine per se, what it tasted like the last time I had it, or anything like that. I look for an emotive memory, something that makes me thinks back to a time when things really felt good.

That’s where the 1998 Poggio Antico Altero fits in. We opened this up on my 37th birthday but the memory comes from Tahirih’s and my honeymoon in October 2004. We were in Tuscany. Specifically in Sinalunga at a resort, Amorosa, just outside of Siena. We tried the wine at the resort’s restaurant on the recommendation of the sommelier after discussing what we liked and didn’t like in Italian wines and mentioning that we’d like to try something from the region. This is what was recommended. The bottle was opened for us and she left us to our first sips, only to rush back and say in her broken English… “If you can, leave this wine for seven minutes.” I think what she meant was “several” but her point was made. Needless to say, we loved the wine, enhanced all the more by the “magic of Tuscany, looking into my new bride’s eyes, and by the fabulous steak in front of us! The next day we actually made the trip into Montalcino and found the Poggio Antico vineyard, buying this bottle and a couple others for transport back home.

Fast forward two and a half years later. My birthday and the biggest question, other than how does it feel to officially be in my “late thirties” is how will the wine live up to its incredible first impression when taken out of the Tuscan countryside and transported to a Brooklyn dining room. Is it even fair to ask any wine to live up to that?

Well, the answer is that good wines can and do live up to the challenge when expectations are set high by a previous experience. This was one of those wines.

The wine…. Dark, deep red in color. Almost black. First impressions are chewy and smoky. Its important to note here that Poggio Antico has two basic bottlings of their Brunellos and Riservas. One is just labeled as Poggio Antico. The other, Altero, is aged more in oak, approximately a year extra. I’ve had both and this chewy and smoke characteristic is enhanced by the extra wood the wine sees. It’s earthy with lots of fruit as well. Namely blackberry and black cherry. But there’s also notes of violets and chocolate with maybe just a hint of black licorice. There’s a lot going on here. The word makes itself know again with cedar. Long finish that leaves a lasting impression.

This wine deserves an A in my book for delivering a fine wine experience and more importantly, for bringing back the memories.

2003 Jean Claude Bachelet – Chassagne Montrachet ‘Encegnieres’ 2005 (Burgundy)

This was a “special wine” we bought to go along with Tahirih’s and my Valentine’s Day dinner at Le Gigot, a very nice French Bistro on Cornelia St. in Greenwich Village. The wine cost $95 a bottle so it was definitely a splurge. It was a hard wine to track down on the internet and I couldn’t find the ’03 anywhere. However, it appears the ’04 can be found for around $40 to $50.

The wine itself is golden hued with a lovely and unusual burnt sugar and vanilia nose. There are also caramel, light butter, and a flinty or minerally aspect to the aroma. The texture is smooth and lush with a light buttery texture. This all leads to a wonderful, medium long finish.

This wine also really evolved in the glass as time went on. After about 45 minutes, the burnt sugar more upfront minerality which introduced a light scent of lemon. However, towards the end of the bottle, about an hour and a half later, the caramel and burnt sugar came back in a big way, reminiscent of crème brulle.

It’s not often I have wines like this and due to my own personal tastes, am rarely moved by a white wine. However, this was on the verge of transporting. I can only imagine that hard-core fans of White Burgundy would find this a good solid wine and have had better. But… I don’t have that base of knowledge and truly found this wine on the verge of transporting. A+

2005 Glenora Riesling

Straw colored with floral and citrus notes. After a little bit if time (i.e. as it gets warmer in the glass), notes of lemon emerge but the orange is still dominant. It might also be giving this wine a little too much credit to say that I noted, albeit buried deep underneath the citrus, faint notes of petrol. The taste is a little on the sweet side but there’s just enough acidity for a nice balance. The finish is on the short side but there. All in all, not a bad wine but it doesn’t bowl me over. I’d give it a B grade.

This comes from my stash of Finger Lake wines that I stock up on once or twice a year. This was bought for $12 at GPC Wine & Liquor in Elmira Heights, NY.

2000 La Magia Rosso di Montalcino and 2004 Vitiano (pre-b-day wines)

So… Today is my b-day and to gear up, Tahirih and I have planned an “extravagant” wild boar dinner. (I really should let up on Tahirih as far as asking her to come up with fantastic dinner to match our “special occasion” wines but… she’s up to it!). We followed a recipe from Vino Italiano, an Italian wine guide written by David Lynch (not that David Lynch) and Joe Bastianich. The recipe comes from Lydia Bastianich, cookbook author, tv star, and chef of Felidia on the Upper East side. What do you pair with wild boar? Well, they suggest a hearty Brunello and we’re planning on opening the 1998 Poggio Antico Altero.

However, we’ve been cooking all day and had to have a little something before hand. What we choose were the 2000 Rosse di Montalcine from La Magia and the 2004 Vitiano from Falesco. The later is also the wine we used to braise the boar.

The 2000 La Magia Rosso di Montalcino is not from a fantastic year but not a bad one either. However, I was actually surprised to see a 2000 Rosso in a wine store as the 2004’s are currently showing up on shelves. Rosso di Montalcino’s are the 2nd wines of the Brunello estates and are made up of grapes from younger vines and grapes not deemed of high enough quality to make it into the main bottlings. However, these wines are often a good indicator and preview of the vintage.

The 2000 La Magia we opened is brick red in color with noticeable tar and a smoky, earthy nose. Dark berry… blackberry lies just underneath. There are also some spices evident. Somewhat out of balance with high alcohol (14%). That leads to a medium finish. Not a bad wine but falls short, even if its not supposed to live up to it’s bigger brother’s Brunello’s standards. I’d give this wine a B-. It was purchased at Warehouse Wine & Spirits for $16.

The 2004 Vitiano from Falesco is typically one of my “go to” wines, always offering quality at a low price point. The Vitiano is a blend of mix of Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot which is aged for a short time in oak. The wine itself has a deep purple color with an earthy, cedary nose. Bark fruit underneath… again blackberry, prunes, and spice. The wine is very nocely balanced with good “grip”, leading to a medium long finish. Very very nice and a great value. This is a solid B+ for me. This was $10, also at Warehouse Wine & Spirits.

Both wines were a nice start to the day but I’m really looking forward to the Poggio Antico. Stay tuned.

2004 J. Vidal Fleury (Cotes du Rhone)

Sometimes you get what you pay for. At $6.99 a bottle from the hot or miss Warehouse Wine & Spirits, that’s what I learned with the 2004 J. Vidal Fleury Côtes du Rhône.

Purple hued color with funky earthy aromas of underbrush and just a slight hint of red fruit. You can also detect the alcohol on this much as you might a new world Zin. Don't get me wrong though. That's only the alcohol I'm talking about - not the taste of the wine. The texture is a bit rough and the finish lingers but not in an entirely pleasant way.

I've had worse wines than this certainly but rather than being unremarkable, this possesses some characteristics that I don't like. Mostly the texture.

It is against my recommendation to buy this, even at $7 a bottle. I give it a D+ in my book.

What did I pick it up… I’ve been coming to the realization that I like Rhone wines and I’ve been hoping to find a nice everyday one for less that $10 a bottle. I was hoping this would be a contender. I was wrong. Lesson learned.