Uhm, like what is this stuff?
I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine sample tasting notes via twitter (limited to 140 characters). They are meant to be fun, quickly-and-easily-digestible reviews. Below is a wrap-up of the twitter reviews from the past week (click here for the skinny on how to read them), along with links to help you find them so you can try them for yourself. Cheers!

• NV Mionetto MO Valdobbiadene Prosecco (Prosecco Superiore): Elegant & (dare we say it) *serious* green apple side to Prosecco bubbly. $23 B+ >>find this wine>>
• 08 Catena Malbec (Mendoza): Smokey/oaky finish mars an otherwise smokin’ red-fruited, floral, dried-herbal South American beauty. $24 B >>find this wine>>
• NV Pascal Redon Cuvee Diaphane (Champagne): Elegant; as in “going on a hike in the woods & then running into Audrey Hepburn” elegant. $59 A- >>find this wine>>
• 07 Twisted Oak Petite Sirah (Calaveras County): Your morning coffee ritual should smell so good as the mocha action on this tasty guy. $24 B >>find this wine>>
• 08 Manzanita Creek Three Vines Zinfandel (Sonoma County): A BIG boy, who would very much like to meet your ribs with the spice rub. $28 B >>find this wine>>
• 07 Three Rivers Champoux vineyard Merlot (Horse Heaven Hills): The tales of Merlot’s death have, apparently, been greatly exaggerated $39 B+ >>find this wine>>
• 08 Three Rivers River’s Red (Columbia Valley): Red fruits are tart, bright & screaming. What are they screaming? “Crazy good deal!” $14 B >>find this wine>>
• 09 Three Rivers Merlot (Columbia Valley): Chewbacca big, but he’s in a pin-stripe suit. Pepper, spice, herbs & olives add the elegance $19 B >>find this wine>>
• 09 Three Rivers Chardonnay (Columbia Valley): Pear, pineapple & cream, all sliced right down the middle with razor-sharp crispness. $18 B >>find this wine>>
• 06 Cornerstone Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley): Coffee, black plums, pencil lead & quite a lot of focus for the The Valley. $75 A- >>find this wine>>
• 06 Michael David Earthquake Petite Sirah (Lodi): Not w/out floral/licorice complexity, but balance is shaken by a sweet boozy finish. $25 B- >>find this wine>>
• 07 Rustenberg John X Merriman (Stellenbosch): The herbal & red plum side of Bord’x blending. One for the huntsman’s lodge, govn’r. $30 B+ >>find this wine>>
• 07 Rustenberg Five Soldiers Chardonnay (Stellenbosch): Lemon curd, toasted almond & a little minerality standing at attention, sir! $39 B+ >>find this wine>>
• 10 Firestone Gewurztraminer (Santa Ynez Valley): A bit short on flowers & lychee, but plenty long on ginger, grapefruit & crispness. $13 B- >>find this wine>>
• 08 Firestone Clone 174 Syrah (Santa Ynez Valley): Here’s 1 to please the crowd. Bring me a plate of BBQ ribs, with all speed, man! $30 B+ >>find this wine>>
• 08 Firestone Syrah (Santa Ynez Valley): Brambly, red, black & jammy. Ah, but the smoked meat guy is stopping by, and you’re hungry… $20 B >>find this wine>>
• 07 Puma Road Black Mountain Vineyards Pinot Noir (Santa Lucia Highlands): This cat’s got a lot of berry, earthy/herbal complexity for $36 B+ >>find this wine>>
• 07 Bagrationi 1882 Reserve Brut (Kakheti): Georgia strikes again. Elegant if subdued presentation of apple, melon & chalky minerality. $25 B >>find this wine>>

Burt Williams might speak softly and have a relatively unassuming appearance, but when it comes to age-worthy, elegant Pinot Noir he is one hundred percent deadly Jedi Knight.

That much was clear during the recent West Of West festival in Occidental, CA (I attended as a media guest), where Littorai’s Ted Lemon interviewed Williams to kick things off.  It was tough for me to pay attention, because a) there were Sonoma Coast Pinots sitting in front of me ranging from `96 to `01, and I was ready to geek out, and b) I found the entire event confusing, because I’m an anal Right Coast guy who requires exposition and purpose stated clearly up-front, and the WoW Fest proceedings launched without much detail on either.

Fortunately, possessing a formal plan is not a prerequisite for making great wine.  In fact, to hear Williams tell it, very little about Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir was planned in the early days when he first starting making Williams Selyem wine in his ‘spare’ time. “We got a call from an ATFA agent,” he mentioned, “who basically told us that we should get bonded before we got arrested; so, we got bonded.”

Williams also told us that “if the wine is balanced… if you pick the fruit before it’s really ripe… I know Sonoma Coast [Pinot Noir] can age!”  Proof is in the vinous pudding: the 1996 Williams Selyem Riverblock Pinot Noir (about $100 if you can find it, and an ‘A’ rated wine if I’ve ever had one) is delicate, earthy and svelte, with cherries, plums, spices and hints of game meat. The finish could accurately be described as gorgeous; it’s a wine that doesn’t smack you over the head, but seduces you.

And it’s in drinking wines like that 1996 Pinot – wines which seem to be made at a more-than-expected frequency in the West Sonoma Coast area – that you say to yourself (if you’re me, anyway): “F*ck Napa Valley Pinot – this is where it’s AT!”…

Read the rest of this stuff »

Last week, after I spoke out against NJ Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Cryan publicly dissing his own wine-buying constituents, I received quite a bit of feedback (comments and e-mail) about something I wasn’t talking about.  Namely, not reporting from the battlefield of the wine shipping fracas taking place among the rolling hills of my home state, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (one of – if not the – worst control states in our fair Union).

In response, I can offer two tidbits as potential justification:

1) Blogger Lew Bryson is doing a fine job of detailing all of the latest PLCB debacles and on-again/off-again satutus of PA’s move towards Privitization, and I’ve little to offer above-and-beyond Lew’s excellent and opinionated coverage. For a pertinent example, check out Lew’s tirade about the state’s failed automated wine kiosks – turns out the PLCB knew that the kiosks had little chance of succeeding before they deployed them (I had a similar view of their potential success published around the same time).

2) I’m anticipating the potential for a lot more insider coverage coming soon on the PLCB and the drama of the changing state of alcohol distribution in PA, since I’ve agreed to be on a focus group for a PLCB Wine Advisory Council member.

Yes, you read that correctly. I’ve been hand-picked by a member of the PLCB’s Eastern PA Regional Advisory Panel to join a cabinet/focus group, which has as one of its priorities advancing the pace of change to improve the currently (very) sad state of wine distribution affairs in the Commonwealth…

Read the rest of this stuff »