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

• 09 Izadi Expresion (Rioja): Tart red plum core wrapped up in some very serious dark cherry & leather. To unfold in a dozen years. $100 A- >>find this wine>>
• 11 Izadi Rioja Blanco (Rioja): Bait-&-switch elegance; from tropical, heady, floral to linear, citric, pithy, & chalky in seconds. $18 B >>find this wine>>
• 11 Loosen Dr L Riesling (Mosel): Still the lovely, floral, stone-fruit benchmark for a budget intro. to world’s greatest wine region. $13 B >>find this wine>>
• 08 Manousakis Nostos Syrah (Chania): So modern, stoney, chewy & dusty you’ll think you’re in WA state instead of on a Greek isle. $25 B >>find this wine>>
• 09 Manousakis Nostos Alexandra’s (Chania): GSM with plush, juicy black & red fruit that wasn’t afraid to get its hands a little dirty. $25 B >>find this wine>>
• 11 Manousakis Nostos Roussanne (Chania): A modern broad, but not too modern or too broad; tropical, toasty & just very easy to like. $24 B+ >>find this wine>>
• 09 Diamantakis Diamond Rock Red (Crete): Their 2008 DRR’s younger, more brooding, gritty & slightly-less-interesting little brother. $22 B >>find this wine>>
• 08 Diamantakis Diamond Rock Red (Crete): Syrah meets Greek Mandilari, match results in plummy, vibrant, over-achieving love child. $22 B+ >>find this wine>>
• 10 Diamantakis Prinos Red (Crete): Herbs, pepper, red plums, raspberries & stones served up in an easy-going style on a leather plate. $16 B >>find this wine>>
• 11 Diamantakis Prinos White (Crete): Malvasia di Candia Aromatica & Chardonnay; mouthful 2 say & a floral, mineral, citric one 2 drink $15 B >>find this wine>>
• 11 Diamantakis Vidiano (Crete): Promising, pithy, vibrant, apple-&-grapefruit start from new vines; bringing character to the party. $15 B >>find this wine>>
• 11 Domaine Les Chenevieres Macon-Villages Chardonnay (Macon-Villages): Apple-in-yo-face to start, but all poised minerals form there. $14 B >>find this wine>>
• 09 Arnaldo Caprai Anima Umbra Bianco (Umbria): A mixed bag intro to Grachetto; nuts, flower & apples, but they’re sprinkled w/ iodine $14 B- >>find this wine>>
• 09 Chanson Bourgogne Pinot Noir (Bourgogne): Like a funk-filled live wire; well armor yourself with food before approaching this one. $19 B- >>find this wine>>
• 08 Pepper Bridge Pepper Bridge Vineyard Red (Walla Walla): Food options are limited; but the chocolate, spice & dusty tannins aren’t. $55 B+ >>find this wine>>

Welcome to the Weekly Wine Quiz, peoples.

Based on feedback from ever-so-vocal-and-intelligent peeps like you, I supply the quiz question each week, but do *not* supply the quiz answer directly in the post. That’s because YOU are supposed to supply the answer in the comments, and then tune back in later today in the comments section for the official answer. Because it’s more fun to keep you in suspense (and I’m a jerk like that). To make the suspense worse, I might be delayed in getting around to posting the answer since I’m on the road (again, again, again) this week – your patience is of course appreciated!

Today continues our recent theme on oak, with a decidedly stinky twist…

Hold Your Nose!

Wine barrels are often blamed as the culprit behind the animal and rubbery aromas associated with contamination of wine by yeast of the genus Brettanomyces. What is generally considered the perception threshold of “Brett” above which most people will be able to pick out those aromas?

• A. 500 mg/l
• B. 700 mg/l
• C. 750 mg/l
• D. 900 mg/l

Cheers – and good luck!

To get a feel for how important the culture of the vine is in the tiny and picturesque hilltop town of Villabuena in Rioja Alavesa, consider this: Villabuena has roughly 317 inhabitants, and just over ten percent of them (about 40) are wineries; so the town hosts 1 winery for every 8 or so people.

Looking out from the back patio of an old house owned by one of those winemaking residents – Bodegas Izadi– and taking in the quaint images of hanging laundry, satellite dishes, and brick-colored rooftops in the shadow of the mountains, Villabuena proffers an odd locale for a winery. But there must be something to the nearby sloping hills that suits the vine – particularly Tempranillo – to explain the preponderance of wineries that call the town home.

Izadi was founded in the late 1980s by restaurateur Gonzalo Anton, following the dual urges of creating wine good enough that he could serve it to his friends, and wanting to produce wines in a more modern style – clean, and approachable – than those that being produced by other members of his members.

It’s ironic, then, that their most compelling wine (in my view, anyway) is the one that has the greatest nod towards Rioja tradition, and is made from the 100-year old vines planted so haphazardly a short drive from the old Villabuena residence that Izadi now calls home…

Read the rest of this stuff »

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

• 81 La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 890 (Rioja): Licorice, tea leaf, fig, spice & awesomeness just checked in as the mayors of your mouth. $250 A >>find this wine>>
• 95 La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 890 (Rioja): Tight, intricate savory balsamic & stewed plum act; finish measured in senate term lengths $149 A >>find this wine>>
• 82 La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 904 (Rioja): Symphonies don’t unfold as complexly, slowly, vibrantly, enticingly & gorgeously as this. $200 A >>find this wine>>
• 98 La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 904 (Rioja): Plums on sandalwood to start, tea to finish, & top-notch balsamic on the herbs in-between. $50 A- >>find this wine>>
• 04 La Rioja Alta Vina Ardanza Reserva (Rioja): On its way to being wonderful (& too funky), but earthy finish alone is worth the $. $30 B+ >>find this wine>>
• 01 La Rioja Alta Vina Ardanza Reserva Especial (Rioja): An absolute triumph of long-lived fruity/herbal complexity, freshness & value $30 A- >>find this wine>>
• 06 Vina Alberdi Reserva (Rioja): More dark fruit, balsamic & structure than you’d expect at this price (& maybe a bit more oak, too). $20 B >>find this wine>>
• 09 Finca San Martin Crianza (Rioja): Classic tobacco-laden Rioja, with a dash of modernly styled plum for good measure (& good value). $14 B >>find this wine>>
• 04 Miguel Merino Gran Reserva (Rioja): Elegant, herbal, earthy & so electrically alive that it could charge a Nissan LEAF for a week. $45 A- >>find this wine>>
• 06 Miguel Merino Reserva (Rioja): Dusty, firm, punishing structure that will provide a cherry, tobacco & earth bounty to the patient. $35 B+ >>find this wine>>
• 04 Miguel Merino Vitola Reserva (Rioja): Martha Stewart probably wishes that her kitchen smelled this earthy, spicy, elegant, & fresh $35 A- >>find this wine>>
• 09 Miguel Merino Mazuelo de la Quinta Cruz (Rioja): Carignan right at home, & at its brambly, peppery, structured, sour-cherry best.$23 B+ >>find this wine>>
• 08 Palacios Remondo Placet Valtomelloso (Rioja): An odd bird, canned peas for 1 wing & rich citrus for the other; but it still flies. $30 B >>find this wine>>
• 08 Palacios Remondo Propriedad (Rioja): Violets & pepper meet blueberry & tobacco; rich sexiness ensues, if not a sense of place. $40 B+ >>find this wine>>
• 11 Ponzi Pinot Gris (Willamette Valley): Favors flavor, flowers & tropics over balance, but wins over with its willingness to party. $15 B >>find this wine>>
• 09 Ponzi Pinot Noir (Willamette Valley): An earthy, peppery, cherry & raspberry welcome mat to introduce you to what WV is all about. $35 B+ >>find this wine>>