Mother's Day Wines ..... Pouilly Fuisse and Zinfandel Port

[Stinky The Clown]

Sparkly's never been a big consumer of fortified wines. A little sherry maybe ... but only now and again. I got this for her for Mother's Day. The lady who runs our local likker store is really very wine savvy. She put me on to this. Its been all the rage here locally. A wonderful zin taste, but extraordinarily smooth. Has a great (and very surprising) hit of pepper to the soft palate on the way down

Consilience Zinfandel Port from Los Olivas (just south of Santa Barbara) in Contra Costa County.

Wowzer! We had a sip tonight after dinner. Schmoooooothe ....

When I got it for her, she looked at and said ..... Oh .... nice ....

Tonight she had it. She said ..... Oh Wow! That's **nice**.

With dinner we had a very nice 2002 Puilly Fuisse that went well with the tomato and herb baked fish and rice pilaf with currants and almonds. Sparkly, Jr., got her the Puilly.


I try :)

[eleny]

1. I love port

I just decided this recently. Sure, it's nice to have a more sharp wine with a meal. It makes every bite of food taste new. But for sitting and reading and sipping - there's nothing like the mellow, sweet grape flavor of port.

The woman who helped me pick one out advised me to find a dark closet we don't use much to store the bottle after its opened. I don't drink very often, so I found one I don't open muchn. Should stay good for quite a while.

I'm glad you all had a nice Mom's Day!

[Sparkly]

2. The best part was...

I didn't think I'd get to see Sparkly Jr. today, but she and Husb conspired to surprise me!

The port was just luscious! Lots of berry taste, but not cloyingly sweet. I've never had anything like it.

And the Pouilly-Fuisse was awesome, too. Plus Husb got me a dozen roses and they each got me a card. Little Sparkly wrote such a sweet note in hers, it even made Husb weepy. (He's such an old sap!) :loveya:

It started out as a crappy day, with a dance rehearsal from 8:30 until noon, which isn't easy at my age plus made me feel a bit sorry for myself, bein' Mother's Day and all... So it turned out to be an unexpectedly wonderful day!

Thanks, Stinky!

[Lefta Dissenter]

3. Hey,

do we all get to call him "Stinky?" :7

Thanks, Husb, for the port recommendation. It sounds just perfect, and I'm going to try to hunt it down.

I'm glad that your Mother's Day evolved into a great day, Sparkly. You deserve it!

My Jr. Dissenters managed to find their way out to visit me, as well. I knew that Juniorette would be here, but Junior is working on his final exams, so he warned me that we'd have to celebrate later in the week. Well, he said that he was sitting in the library and felt his brain cells fading, so rather than staying there being unproductive, he came out to enjoy some veggie wraps and fruit salad with us... and a nice mocha torte. :D So much for the diet... :(

[Stinky The Clown]

8. Everyone can call me Stinky

Cuz its my new name. And cuz I'm really a clown.

[Shakespeare]

4. Actually, Contra Costa county is far north of Santa Barbara...

It's in the SF east bay, and they're producing some stellar big reds in that area, so I'm not at all surprised that somebody's putting out a great zin port from there, too.

I only recently "discovered" port, too--thanks to my hubby--and have found several California ports that I very much like. If Sparkly likes sherry, I have a recommendation you might both enjoy: Geyser Peak's tawny port. It's heaven in a glass, and I'd drink it every day if I could. Runs around $19 for a 375ml bottle, and worth every penny (if you can't find it locally, I believe you can order it through their website).

[Stinky The Clown]

5. I stand corrected

:spank:

The wine is, indeed, from Contra Costa County. The wine *company* is from Los Olivos, which is northwest of Santa Barbara, about halfway to Santa Maria (Jackson Trial Central, isn't it?) on the 101. I hope this can be excused cuz I'm an east coast guy. I know where Smyrna, Delaware and Monkton, Maryland area. :)

We'll try that Port. Right now I have some Taylor Fladgate, which is from Portugal, that is excellent ... although I use most of it for cooking. I do the ocacsional sipperoo, though! :)

Man-O-Man are you right about the big reds coming forth from that part of the world. Sparkly likes sirahz and merlots. She's been on a New Zealand and Australian kick of late. They're certainly quite good, and really priced nicely, but I can't forgo my California Zins. I put up a case of 2000 Cline's Big Break. Its just about ready ... maybe even right now. Its another Contra Costa zin and just wonderful. I don't think there's anymore of the 200 floating around. Our local likker store has some 2002 that was just about as good, but still a biiiiiit green.

We're kinda kicking ourselves because we've found so many good zins, but we never kept any notes or labels. Now we forget what we liked and what we didn't. I think zins are the most underrated wines out there. Every one of them seems to have so many layers and each one is different. Not only are they good ... they're always a surprise ... which is also why they don't command the respect of, say, a cab. With cabs you get more consistency. Me ... I like the chance one takes with a new zin. Since it takes me a week or more to finish a bottle, I can live with the $20-$25 per bottle price.

If you like big cabs, I really enjoyed the Rodney Strong Alexander's Crown from northern Sonoma. I have some 1994 sittin' an' waitin' We finished the last of the '92 a few years ago and it was one of the best cabs I've ever tasted. The '94 isn't quite as good, but really close. This was on the pricier side, though. When I bought it, it was a bit over $30. I have no idea what it might be selling for now, if you can find it.

[Shakespeare]

6. Now you're talkin' my language!

Heck, you know more as an east coaster than a lot of locals here do. ;-)

If you like really stellar reds, you've gotta check out Geyser Peak (in fact, we dropped our wine club membership with Rodney Strong about a year ago to justify joining up at Geyser Peak--their wines are non pareil). Geyser Peak does a zin from Contra Costa County (from their block collection, the Sandy Lane Vineyard) that's one of the best zins I've ever had the pleasure of drinking. Geyser Peak's reds are outstanding across the board, but that zin is really a knockout. We've got a new club shipment ready to pick up this weekend, so I'm hoping there's a bottle of zin in it (we're about due). And we'll grab a couple of bottles of that tawny port while we're there--yum.

Another lesser-known but REALLY good zin is from the Mariah label. It's owned by wine behemoth Fetzer (who, believe it or not, produces some of the best small production wines you'll ever find; they're just not very readily available). They'll run you around $30 a bottle, but they've got a lineup of 4 zins (all the same price), and all are fantastic (Poor Ranch, Mendocino Ridge, Ink Grade (Napa), and Alexander Valley). All four are great.

We've got a couple of newer vintage Rodney Strong cabs waiting patiently in our collection right now--and VERY much looking forward to opening them up in a few more years.:9

edited to add pics & info:



And here's a review of the Mendocino Ridge zin:

http://www.liquorama.net/browseproducts/Mariah-Mendocino-Ridge-Zinfandel-2000----Rated-90.HTML

Fun trivia: The newly approved Mendocino Ridge appellation is the only AVA designated by elevation (rather than geographical boundary).

And here's the Geyser Peak zin:



http://www.geyserpeakwinery.com/ourwines/awardsandaccolades_result.aspx?wine=108

[Stinky The Clown]

7. Its funny you mention the big winery behemoths and their new penchant for

the better wines and really small, localized productions. I've gotten some excellent bottles from Ridge (not Rabbit Ridge). They have a whole line of small production, mostly old vine zins. I'm told all they do are zins and most of it is old vine stuff. I never cease to be amazed at the marked difference 20 miles (or even 'just over the hill') makes in a wine.

Fetzer, as you say, is doing some nice wines. So, too, are the Gallo Brothers. To me, they were only the cheap-assed jug wines my grandfathers would buy when their home production ran out. I was up in Marin a few years ago, up near San Rafael, and we went by some of their newer vineyards. From what I saw, they were doing it right. Kudos to them for trying.

Beaulieu Vineyards are another who also doing this now. (I've had a few from them, but so far have found no standouts.) I guess, in the end, its like the big beer breweries doing microbrews. I'm okay with this trend. It keeps wine drinking interesting and it is the opposite of corporate homogenization.

Now, if I can just find a California unoaked chardonnay to satisfy my (occasional) taste for whites. I'm not a big chardonnay fan. It has a certain blandness and sameness to it. However, when we were in Spain a few years back, we found a panoply of unoaked chardonnays. We were told the vines had come to Spain from .... tada .... California! In an effort to differentiate themselves, they tried aging in steel and then glass instead of oak. You would never believe it was even chardonnay. And very reasonably priced. The Euro and the Buck were at about parity, and it was €3 a 750 bottle. It was a one year old wine. The label was Enate. We found some 'lightly oaked' Australian chardonnay over here but it wasn't even close.

My taste in whites, though is odd. While I like big, bold, complex reds, my favorite whites are sweetish, fruity (*real* fruity) rieslings and gerwertztraminers. But that unoaked chard was amazing. Dry-ish, but not like a bone and really, really crisp and clean.

Anyway ... enuff on the wine ..... I may hafta break my own rule and have one *before* supper. :)

[Shakespeare]

9. ooh ooh ooh--I've got a great budget unoaked chard for you!

Fetzer's organic line, Bonterra (I don't think it even says "Fetzer" anywhere on the label), is pretty widely available--my sister can even find it in the supermarkets in Florida. Their chardonnay runs about $10, and is completely unoaked. Wonderful tropical fruit flavors.

I'm the same way about chards--very, very iffy and picky. I've never liked the beat-you-over-the-head-with-oak tendency of so many, but have recently found a few that ARE oaked that are quite nice, with lovely vanilla and spice notes (Rochioli's Russian River chard, and Geyser Peak's Ricci Vineyard chard). Living in the middle of wine country is teaching me to keep an open mind about new varietals, as well as old ones I'd convinced myself I don't like.

My all-time favorite California whites are from a small (and unbelievably inexpensive) winery in the Anderson Valley in Mendocino County--Navarro. Their German whites are outstanding (and they do a dry muscat that's unlike anything I've ever had before; reminiscent of a good gewurtz). Most of their wines are in the $15 range--a real bargain.

Now I want a glass!

[Stinky The Clown]

10. Have you seen the movie "Sideways" yet?

http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/sideways/ (careful ... it plays music)

[Shakespeare]

11. Yes! My husband picked it up the week it came out.

LOVED the movie, even though Miles is completely insufferable (as he's supposed to be, I assume). We picked up an untried bottle of Pinot to drink while we watched, and immediately concluded that we should've chosen a zin, regardless how big a role pinot plays in the movie. ;-)

[Stinky The Clown]

12. Sparkly and I rented it just a few weeks ago

It was a riot. Our little conversation here put me in mind of it. What a great sendup of wine snobbery. When I spoke to my partner by phone today, *she* mentioned it, asking if we'd seen it. She knew we'd get a huge kick out of it.

And yeah .... pinot ..... eh ... its okay. :)

[grasswire]

13. egad

A person who uses "non pareil" in conversation. I salute you.