2014 Oscar Party Wine Winners

Oscar Night is a fun night in our house.  It’s a perfect evening to celebrate what we love… movies and wine!  We’ve hosted this event a number of years (2013 Results, 2012 Results).  Whether it is who takes home the Best Picture award, or which wine is the favorite of the evening, each night brings different surprises.  All wines selected are under $20, and ones we’ve shared or discovered with friends. 

While the food pairings give a good hint to what’s inside the bag, it is always fun watching friends guess the varietals.  This year had a little twist, as they were all blends.  I must say, the surprise for me was how many of our friends came pretty darn close to nailing every single wine!  After tasting all the selections, and before the reveal, votes are cast for the favorite.  This year’s winner…

4^th Place: Gruet Blanc de Noir

We first discovered this wine as part of our “Coast to Coast, Champagne Toast” New Year’s Eve parties.  At these events, we shared sparkling wine from each time zone, welcoming the New Year on each hour (including Hawaii!). It was a tough challenge to find a decent selection from each US time zone, but this one was a winner for the Mountain region.  It has rich and toasty flavors, smooth and refreshing finish, and a great deal. Retails $17.

Food pairing: Ginger-Soy chicken wraps, vegetable spring rolls, parmesan cheese

3^rd Place: 17^th Edition Sokol Blosser Evolution

We discovered this wine while visiting their tasting room.  It is one of my favorite “summer” wines.  Intense tropical fruit notes up front, with a nice crisp, clean finish.  Blended from 9 grapes, this smooth, layered white is an excellent food wine, and is enjoyable all on its own.  Retails $14

Food pairing: Bacon crostini, butternut squash tartlets, baked camembert with roasted garlic onion jam

2^nd Place: 2009 E. Guigal Cotes Du Rhone

We first shared a bottle of this wine with our friend Darren, in Dublin.  It is a versatile, light-bodied red wine blend of 52% Grenache, 45% Syrah, 3% Mourvedre.  It tastes well on its own, even better with food.  It’s a crowd pleaser in flavor and price. Retails $12

Food pairing: Italian sausage pigs in a blanket, port salut cheese

1^st Place: 2010 Wattle Creek Kristine’s Cuvee

This is another one we discovered at the tasting room.  It is a Bordeaux blend of 60% cabernet sauvignon, 14% Petit Verdot, 13% Merlot, 13% Malbec.  Friends enjoyed the aromas and flavors of plum, cherry, and caramel, and lower alcohol and light tannin profile. Retail $20

Food pairing: Balsamic beef sandwiches, aged cheddar cheese

2007 Ferrari-Carano Tresor - A Terrific Steakhouse Wine

There are a few bottles in our modest wine collection we like to call steakhouse wine. These are extra-tasty wines with a little bit of backbone that we hope will pair perfectly with a nice steak.

We recently opened a bottle of 2007 Ferrari-Carano Tresor. Sonoma Valley wine fans are generally familiar with Ferrari-Carano and their excellent wines. Their Fume Blanc is on our Great Wines Under $20 list, but they also produce higher-end wines like this one. Tresor means “treasure” and we’d agree it’s a fitting name.

The wine is labeled as a red wine but could also be considered a Cabernet Sauvignon since more than 75% of the wine consists of that varietal. It’s 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petit Verdot, 4% Malbec, 4% Merlot, and 2% Cabernet Franc. 

The wine had leather overtones with underlying smells of dark berry on the nose. It was a medium-bodied wine with smooth tannins starting on the front palate and coming on perfectly strong on the finish.  

We enjoyed a bottle at Fleming’s Steakhouse, which makes the best steak in town. The wine was a perfect pair and we savored each sip until the very last drop.

The Wine Trifecta

Last Wednesday, Sally and I had a trifecta of great wine experiences. We explored new wines, enjoyed some great food, and shared a bottle of wine with a friend.

Can it get any better on a Wednesday night?

We met our friend Yolanda after work at Village Vino to taste some Spanish wine that had been brought in by wine importer Valkyrie Selections. For $15, we each got to taste five wines ranging from a light Rosé to a robust red blend. The wines had all received a rating of 90 points or higher from wine critic Steve Tanzer, the editor and publisher of International Wine Cellar. It was a good learning experience since we're not very familiar with Spanish wine.

Here were our favorites:

2012 Raventos I Blanc Rosa 100% Pinot Noir.

2011 Tomàs Cusiné “Auzells.” 31% Macabeu, 27% Sauvignon Blanc, 16% Riesling, 16% Chardonnay, 5% Albariño, 3% Müller Thurgau, and 2% Muscat.

2007 Joan Simó “Sentius.” 48% Grenache, 15% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Syrah, and 10% Carignan.

The Sentius was the consensus top pick, so we purchased a bottle to share. Village Vino has a nice selection of finger foods that are perfect for pairing with wine and we decided on a cheese plate and their salumi flatbread. 

The wine tasting was a little too successful because Village Vino had sold out of several of the wines by the time we wound down our evening. We did pick up a bottle of the 2011 Tomàs Cusiné “Auzells and plus a 2011 Domain Girault Le Grand Moulin Sancerre to replace a bottle we had recently consumed. (The Sancerre was a discovery from another Village Vino event.)

One of the nice things about the event was your tasting fee was refunded if you purchased a bottle. Village Vino's wine prices are already very reasonable, so this was just icing on the cake.

We've had several posts this year about events at Village Vino. I highly recommend checking out their events calendar if you happen to live in San Diego to see if you can score a wine trifecta of your own.

Enjoying Spanish wine at Village Vino with our friend Yolanda.

Raymond Burr

Raymond Burr VineyardsOn our recent road trip through California Wine Country, we visited a number of new wineries recommended by fellow wine lovers.  One of these stops was a recommendation from our friend, Michele ~ Raymond Burr (yes, as in Perry Mason).  She discovered this place on a wine excursion to Napa/Sonoma, and we are so happy she shared it with us! 

Raymond Burr is a small production, 100% estate grown vineyard located in Healdsburg.  The tasting room is intimate, but has a great patio area with huge shade trees and wonderful views of the valley.  For those of you who are fans of the actor, you’ll enjoy all the memorabilia throughout ~ we focused more on the wine.  During our visit, Frank served us a tasting of their current releases of Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, their Bordeaux-style blend “Quartet” and my personal favorite, Cab Franc.

2010 Chardonnay ($28) - Less than 313 cases produced

Portuguese style ~ crisp citrus flavors with a well-balanced creamy finish, without being buttery.  Great food wine.

2010 Cabernet Sauvignon ($38) – 91% cab, 9% Malbec

Smooth cab that is very drinkable on own, as well with a juicy steak.  Berry nose, with bold cab flavors slightly mellowed by the bright fruits of the Malbec.   Very tasty and excellent value (we brought some home!).

2010 Quartet ($44) – Bordeaux-style blend

Blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.  Bright fruit on the front palate, grows in intensity, and has a very smooth finish.  Universal food wine, and definite crowd pleaser.

2010 Cabernet Franc ($38) – 100% Cab Franc

No secret I am a fan of this varietal, and can be hard to find (good ones).  I was thrilled to see it!  Classic green pepper nose, light fruit forward flavors with smooth, well-balanced tannins and a hint of cinnamon on the finish.  Rich layers of great flavor – this one came home, too!

The wines are not distributed, but can be ordered online for shipping.  If you like big wines, it’s worth ordering on recommendation alone ~ thanks Michele for discovering and sharing this great find!

 Jeff and Sally outside Raymond Burr tasting room

A wine that tastes like wine

It's not uncommon to struggle a bit to describe the taste of wine. For most palates, picking up a hint of pencil box or cassis is an impossible and pointless struggle. Sometimes, I think my mother-in-law describes a good glass of vino the best when she says, "It tastes like really good wine!"

Sally and I recently enjoyed a bottle of wine that's best described as tasting like a really good wine. It was a 2008 Hess Collection 19 Block Cuvee, a blend of 69% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Malbec, 8% Merlot, 8% Syrah, 1% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot. 

I could give a more thorough description; bright cherry on the nose, raspberry and plum on the palate, and nice soft tannins on the finish with a bit of pepper. Those are all in my notes, but my first thought was it smells like a wine room and tastes the way I imagine wine tastes whenever I daydream.

You can find the 2009 vintage currently on sale at BevMo or Total Wine.