Viña Ardanza 2016 Reserva, Rioja

A family winery founded in Rioja more than 220 years ago produces this perfect red for your table.

A family winery founded in Rioja more than 220 years ago produces this perfect red for your table. La Rioja Alta, SA, is under its fifth generation of family management and is located in the Rioja Alta region.

We recently had the chance to taste the remarkable Viña Ardanza 2016 Reserva. Grapes from the Rioja Alta subregion sit at a loftier altitude in Rioja and the cooler temperatures produce higher acidity. Grapes ripen more gradually, allowing for more complex flavors.

Tempranillo (80%) is blended with Garnacha. The grapes are hand-picked and transported in refrigerated boxes (it gets hot in Spain!). The Tempranillio is aged for 36 months in American oak and the Garnacha is aged for 30 months.

In the glass the wine is an intense garnet color. The nose gives a foretaste of what’s to come: rich fruit aromas of stewed cherries. This wine opens up wonderfully on the palate, the raspberry and red fruit touched with baking savory spices. The oaking is refined and brings subtle vanilla to the soft, round tannins. It is a wine that is elegant and accessible yet powerful and stylish. It’s a wine you don’t want to swallow because you want the enjoyment to continue.

This is a perfect match for roast meats, game, spicy fish casseroles, smoked and aged cheeses, and barbecues. The retail price is about $41 and is a tantalizing value at that figure.

La Rioja Alta, SA, was recently recognized as one of the world’s most admired wine brands. In the late 1980s company expanded with a new winery in the Rioja Alavesa subregion and then into Ribera del Duero, and the home of Albariño, Riax Baixas.

Full disclosure: This wine was received as a marketing sample.

WIYG: What In Your Glass? Here’s Our Latest

WIYG? That’s a question we are often asked. Here’s a look at what's in our glass.

Naked Wine Company “Oh! Orgasmic” 2014 Tempranillo

This is an excellent wine. The name is one reason it remained buried in the cellar. You can’t really open this bottle with a group of friends or family. Things could get really weird!

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The good news is the wine is delicious and still in its prime drinking window. Plenty of dark, thick, fruit notes.

It comes from a wine region that is trending with us – the Columbia Gorge. A scant 550 bottles were produced. Although the winery is now called Evoke, they still offer the Oh! Orgasmic line and the current vintage has a list price of $80.

Whether it delivers on its name is for you to decide!

Hillinger Secco NV

Hillinger has become my favorite Austrian winery. Mostly I enjoy their unique red blends that include Blaufränkisch, St. Laurent, and Zweigelt.

I was delighted to see this bottle of rosé nestled on a shelf of a local wine shop. The wine is made from Pinot Noir in the same method as Prosecco.

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Upon opening a tidal wave of froth filled the flutes, just perfect for an unseasonably warm afternoon on the patio. Light strawberry notes match the gorgeous pink color. A touch of kiwi is perfect for this young and fresh wine. A mere $19.

A portion of the sales benefits the fight against breast cancer.

Bennet Lane 2014 Maximus

The Napa Valley blend is labeled as a “red feasting” wine. We popped is open during an evening of appetizers and games with our friends.

Maximus delivered maximum enjoyment! This is a plump, lush wine with a cherry bowl aroma. On the palate there are dark flavors of chocolate, fig, and dried cherries.

At a $55 price point, it has already leaped onto my list of top red blends to savor. The blend is 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Syrah, and 7% Merlot.

The winery is home to more than 65 90+ point wines. Maximus is insanely good. Get some for your next feast.

 

Doña Paula 2021 Velvet Blend Blue Edition

This blend from Mendoza, Argentina, features Malbec, Pinot Noir, and Bonarda. You don’t find many blends with Pinot Noir in them. Now I know why.

This wine didn’t have the expected richness of Malbec, but rather an earthy undertone with slight cherry. The body is nice and silky. There were tannins and some spices, but overall, I didn’t get it. I have enjoyed other Doña Paula wines, but this one wasn’t a cohesive, enjoyable sip.

Argentina, I love you, but this bottle fell short.

Roundup Event Captures The Best of Premium Texas Wine

Cactus, cowboys, and tumbleweeds? If that is your vision of Texas, get ready to expand your mind.

Roots Of Texas Wine

The first vineyard in North America, it is said, was established in Texas by Spanish missionaries in 1662. Today Texas has more than 500 wineries and the wine industry contributes more than $13 billion in economic value annually. It is the fifth-largest wine-producing state in the US, and boy are those wines good!

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The state of Texas is actually bigger than France with plenty of geographic diversity to grow grapes. To explore more deeply the Lone Star State winemaking tradition, we created a food and wine experience. The Texas Wine Roundup featured a selection of fine Texas wines paired with artfully-prepared small dishes.

Texas Roundup Wineries

Here’s a capsule on the four Texas wineries showcased at our roundup:

Wedding Oak Winery has its main winery in San Saba. It specializes in Mediterranean-style wines with heavy influences from the Rhone Valley. The winemaker, Seth Urbanek has worked at wineries in Champagne, Australia, and New York’s Finger Lakes before moving back to his home state. His talent has elevated Wedding Oak to recognition as one of the top wineries in the country.

   Texas Heritage Vineyard, located in Fredericksburg, just celebrated its fourth anniversary and is already racking up lofty awards. For two years in a row, their tasting room has been voted by the Fredericksburg Standard as the Reader’s Choice Best Winery Tasting Room. They are gaining national notoriety for impressive wines made with Portuguese varieties such as Souzao, and Italian grapes like Barbera and Sangiovese.

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Kerrville Hills Winery is located just north of Kerrville. Texas wine industry icon John Rivenburgh purchased the winery in 2019 and has put in a significant effort into building a portfolio of top-notch Texas wines. He is well known for his impressive Semillon, Mourvèdre, and is widely-recognized as a leading evangelist of Tannat.

Fall Creek Vineyards is the closest winery to Austin. It is one of the oldest and most storied wineries in the state with incredible wines that have graced the table of presidential inaugurations. Winemaker Sergio Cuadra was recruited to move to Texas from a prestigious winery in his home country of Chile 10 years ago and has made a big imprint on the Texas wine industry.

Food And Wine Lone Star State Style

We invited four other couples to join us for the wine dinner and only one had tasted Texas wine before. Our guests created dishes to reflect Texas and match with a Texas bottle.The result – combining friendship, delicious food, and premium Texas wine – was a smashing success.

We opened with Cowboy Caviar bites and shrimp & avocado bites. This was paired with the Fall Creek 2021 Sauvignon Blanc and Wedding Oak 2021 Terre Blanc, a blend of Roussanne and Marsanne. The spritely Sauvignon Blanc carves its own path with lemon and white peach and a nice soft finish. The full-bodied Terre Blanc is golden yellow and is barrel-aged with plenty of green apple and pear flavor.

The Rivenburgh 2021 High Plains Vermentino by Kerrville Hills Winery was light and crisp with a kiss of fresh apple. This was paired with Southwestern Fish Tacos with Apple Fennell Slaw & chipotle dressing artfully prepared by Arthur (merlot2muscadine.com).

The amazing Texas Heritage Vineyard 2019 Merlot was a silky intro to the reds. Its cherry notes unified with the organic chicken thighs with porcini and cherries. This is a robust Merlot with beautifully extracted red fruit flavors.

A pinnacle for the evening was the  limited 2021 "Alamo" Cabernet Sauvignon. Some of the grapes came from Fall Creek’s Oxbow Vineyard, which was land originally owned by Alamo hero William B. Travis. A portion of the sales of the wine will go to help operate and maintain the Alamo. This Cab has rich, deep, cherry and plum notes with a touch of light oak. It blended deliciously with Smoked Beef Brisket & BBQ Sauce with skillet-fried potatoes.

I had thought about having a palate cleanser at this point (five wines consumed) in the dinner. However, my wife, who had slaved for days to set everything up, protested. I decided that cornbread would be a great Texas-style “sorbet.” Our friends made tasty Borracha (drunken) Beans over cornbread, which accompanied the inky Texas Heritage 2019 Petite Sirah, which has blueberry and chocolate notes.

The grand finale was Wild Boar Ragù Pappardelle matched with the decanted Wedding Oak  2020 Tannat The wild boar was shipped in from Texas by D’Artagnian Gourment Meats. We also tasted the Kerrville Hills Winery Tannat as well. Texas Tannat is the most elegant expression of this grape I've tasted. Deep, powerful plum flavors and dark fruit tamed the raging bull (which had been simmering for 5 hours).

Although most were unfamiliar with Texas wines, everyone came away dazzled by the range and quality of these great wines. Thanks to the wineries for making this extravaganza possible. A tip of the Stetson to our posse of guests, who also helped prepare the meal: Phyllis The Filly and Bronco Bud, Ambush Arthur and Maverick Mary, Tombstone Tony and Alamo Amy, Lawless Laurie and Jedidiah Jeff. The hosts had to have outlaw names too – Wild Dave and Calamity Kathy.

Even if we all can’t be Texans, we can at least savor these brilliant Lone Star wines.

Full disclosure: The wines were received as marketing samples.

German Pet-Net And Rosé Bring Thrills In The New Year

The year 2023 is off to a great start. We celebrated the advent of the new year with two great German wines. 

We really love pétillant naturel wines. Roughly translated as “naturally sparkling,” these wines are bottled during initial fermentation whereas most wines are bottled after fermentation. Instead pet-nat wines use the carbon dioxide that is a byproduct of fermentation to create blessedly delightful bubbles.

Brothers Daniel and Jonas Brand create certified organic and vegan wines using wild yeast in the Pfalz region of Germany. We started our celebrating with their funky Weingut Brand 2019 Pet-Nat. Made organically with a Silvaner and Pinot Blanc, this was an explosion of mineral and zesty citrus flavor. In the glass is was foamy and hazy. It is one of the best sparkling wines we've had. Hats off, Brand brothers.

We followed this with the 2020 Pinot Noir Rosé from Meyer Näkel. The wine comes from from the Ahr region. The Romans began cultivating grapes in this area more than 1,000 years ago. The region has been focused on Pinot Noir since the 1700s.

Meyer-Näkel is a fifth generation family. When Willibald Näkel established the vineyard with his wife Paula Meyer, they focused on dry red wine, something quite unusual for the time. Today the estate is run by his son Werner, his wife and daughters. The winery produces about 10,000 cases per year, mostly Spätburgunder, which is what Pinot Noir is called in Germany.

The Pinot we tasted is a beautiful coral pink rosé. It's dry and smooth with an explosion of berries.If you haven’t yet tried German Pinot Noir, you are missing out. We suggest you start with this bottle, which costs $28 and is available at Wine.com.

These wines were received as a marketing sample.

Fincas del Lebrel 2019 Granciano, Rioja

Word association: What comes to mind with the word “Rioja?” Aside from being a wonderland of great Spanish wine, it is mostly associated with the Tempranillio grape.

However, Rioja does encompasses more. White Rioja can be made with a handful of different grapes, primarily Viura. Red grape varieties cover 90% of the vineyard area in Rioja and most of that is Tempranillo.

Other red grapes allowed are Garnacha, Mazuelo (Cariñena), and Graciano. Garnacha (also known as Grenache) can be easily found on the wine shop shelves, but the last two are more rare.

Imagine my surprise when I was strolling down the aisle of the Lidl grocery store when I saw a bottle of Graciano. Lidl is known for importing and selling wine at a low cost and you can find tasty bargains, especially on everyday drinkers.

I might have bought this bottle no matter the price. This bottle, however, was only $4.49!. That’s a price that is so low it gave me pause. However, it bears the label of Rioja, assuring you of a good quality.

A hundred percent Graciano Rioja is quite different from a Tempranillo. This Graciano is inky dark with satin smooth body and a lovely juicy mouthfeel. It closes with a bit of minerality.

This isn’t a nuanced bottle that will win global awards, but it’s a delicious, fruit-forward dry wine. It might we just the thing to quench your thirst on a Tuesday evening.

German Wines Offer New Choices For Holidays

Looking for creative choices for your holiday wine? Here are two winning bottles from Germany.

Picking up Cabernet and Chardonnay for your holiday entertaining? It’s time to color outside the lines and dazzle your guests with some lesser-known wines from Germany.

Try setting your table with German wines. For red consider this tasty bottle of Weingut Beurer Trollinger Trocken. Trollinger wines are meant to be enjoyed while they are young and fresh. This bottle is jubilantly fruity yet dry. The wine is certified biodynamic, following the winery’s goals of purity, minerality, liveliness, tension, complexity, and expression. Perfect for poultry and it can be lightly chilled too.

Pinot Blanc is also known as Weissburgunder. This bottle from Weingut Richard Böcking has delicate fruitiness and fresh acidity, Pinot Blanc is an ideal food wine. It opens with minerality and then rounded apricot and pear notes. The grapes for this wine come from the steep hillsides of the Mosel River, where the Böcking family has been making wine since 1624.

The prices for these wines are deliciously affordable. The Pinot Blanc goes for about $18 while the Trollinger retails for about $25.

Full disclosure: These wines were received as marketing samples.

Shelton Vineyards Hosts Special Event

Iconic North Carolina winery hosts wine writers and media.

Shelton Style And Quality Wines Impress

Story by Dave Nershi, CSW  -   Photos by Corrie Huggins

Eastern wineries have long labored in the shadows of their West Coast counterparts. We get it. As much as we appreciate bottles from Napa, there are stellar wineries on the other coast, right under our noses. One such gem is Shelton Vineyards, one of the largest vineyards of the East Coast. It’s located in North Carolina’s Yadkin Valley and shares a growing season and climate similar to the best winegrowing regions of Europe.

Shelton recently threw open the doors to the winery and tasting room during a special event for wine bloggers, writers, and influencers. The event featured a dine-around throughout the winery. We wound our way from the crush pad, to the tank room, and to the barrel cave before ending in the tasting room. All the while we enjoyed selected wines crafted by winemaker Ethan Brown with tasty small dishes by Executive Chef Mark Thrower.

The winery was founded by brothers Charlie and Ed Shelton in 1999. Today, a wide-range of grapes are grown on the Shelton estate, which has more than 400 acres. Varieties include Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Malbec, Tannat, Petit Verdot, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and Petit Manseng.

The wine and food pairings were:

Crush Pad: Sauvignon Blanc & Joyce Farm’s Chicken Napa cabbage roll with lemon and basil

Work Room: Cabernet Sauvignon & Slivered peppered “Naked” duck breast, cherry-cab gastrique, Farro salad

Tank Room: Tannat & Lamb lollipop, Danish blue stuffed Castelvetrano olives, roasted tomato coulis

Barrel Cave: Sparkling Riesling & Poached shrimp on Lavosh, honey-lime mascarpone, pickled golden beet, pepper jelly

The food pairings were delicious. Chef Mark oversees the on-site restaurant, the Harvest Grill. We’ve dined at the grill on several occasions and were dazzled each time. My favorite pairing was the lamb lollipop with their smashing Tannat. Of special interest is the sparkling program. Still in its infancy, it’s making some nice strides. We finished the formal program in the cool barrel cave with a toast of sparkling Riesling.

Many thanks to Summer Baruth, Shelton marketing director, for putting together all the wonderful pieces, and to my blogging friends and colleagues. Shelton is a destination winery in North Carolina’s wine county that should be on you next itinerary.

Angela 2015 Pinot Noir, Yamhill-Carlton 1.5 L

I felt so guilty. For many years I have only patronized two on-line wine retailers (as we’ll as my favorite local shops). An ad from WTSO (Wines ’Til Sold Out) caught my attention and I was hooked. Like some other sites, they offer a showcase deal several times a day, where you can snag a $100 Napa Cab for $29.99. They also have some “last chance” and premium wines so you always have a selection. The event that put me over the top was the Magnum Marathon.

For 24 hours, magnums were going to be offered at cut-rate prices with new bottles being offered every hour. I was locked in I also tuned in my wine tasting buddy Arthur, who is now known as the Wine Bandit. I scored four magnums including this single vineyard Pinot from Willamette Valley. This was the most expensive at $43. I also purchased a Sonoma Cabernet from a favorite AVA (Moon Mountain, a Rioja, and a Provence Rosé. The last two bottles were $27!

So this certainly endeared me to WTSO. The Angela 2015 Pinot Noir  is a single vineyard bottling from the Yamhill-Carlton AVA in Willamette Valley. I took it on a weekend reunion with friends in the Asheville area.

This is a real beauty that still is holding together, perhaps it is in a magnum. The magnum has twice as much wine as a normal bottle but exposes about the same amount of wine to air. So, the aging potential is better.

To me this was deliciously smooth with delicate red cherry and strawberry flavors. The body is medium-light with a tad of earthiness and notes of cherry cola. Angela is a project of Ken Wright and Antony Beck, son of Graham Beck, a South African winery owner and business magnate. The value of this magnum is sky high!

Since I have you thinking about magnums, let me share the main reasons you should love magnums:

1. Bring on the party! Magnums are impressive and perfect for entertaining.
2. Right sized. For a dinner party of six to eight people, a magnum is just the right size. For larger parties, it means fewer bottles to open.
3. Better aging. As mentioned above the greater wine to air ratio means better and longer aging than 750 ML.

Magnums can be pricey, but there are bargains out there! Poppppppp…. That’s the sound of me opening another magnum. Cheers!

Little Rock Marriott Wine Tasting A Pinnacle Event

Wines of the world explored at Little Rock landmark.

 

By Dave Nershi, CSW

A Tip-Top Location

For the last several years I have hosted a wine tasting at the southern Management Association conference. This year the conference was in Little Rock AR, a wonderful small city overlooking the Arkansas River. The headquarters hotel was the Little Rock Marriott.

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The Marriott has a wonderful location just steps from dozens of great restaurants and shops as well as the capital and the William J. Clinton Presidential Library. Standout restaurants include Flying Fish, Samantha’s Tap Room & Wood Grill and @ The Corner. Of course, the Marriott has its own pub, which was a great location to grab a cold beverage.

Adjacent to the hotel is Riverfront Park, which encompasses 39 acres in the downtown Little Rock on the south bank of the Arkansas River. The park is a stroller’s delight with a semi-formal arrangement of walks, terraces, plazas, and sitting areas. Right outside the Marriott’s Riverfront Room is the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden which uses landscape architecture to showcase more than 90 works of art from sculptors in Arkansas and across the country.

Begin With Bubbly

My tasting took our group of about 25 to the tip-top of the hotel: The Pinnacle Room, which provides a 360-degree view from the 20^th floor. The staff did an outstanding job setting up for the event. I began arranging and icing down bottles.

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I was delighted to see six bottled of chilled Josh Prosecco marching in the door. Although he couldn’t be with us for the event, the Little Rock Marriott GM David Lang is a wine afficionado and he sent the bubbly to start the event on a festive note. Thanks, David!

Josh is a well-known brand, but I didn’t realize they made Prosecco. In fact, I learned, they partnered with Italian winemaker Daniele Pozzi to launch their own Prosecco in 2019. Much like Champagne, the only Prosecco comes from a specific region, in this case, Italy.

This wine was frothy, with a touch of sweetness and apple and pear flavors. Our group raised a grand toast to the Marriott!

The tasting had a Wines Around the World theme. The lineup was

· Gassac “Folie” - NV - France (Pet-Nat style sparkling)

· Verus 2019 Furmint - Stajerska, Slovenia

· Netzl 2019 Zweigelt Classic - Caruntum, Austria

· Noble Hill 2019 Estate Reserve—Simonsberg, South Africa

Folie means madness and it’s also a French sparkling wine with a crown cap. This is in the style of a petulant-natural wine. This wine is bottled before fermentation is over and finishes in the bottle – resulting in fine bubbles with white flower flavors and fresh aromas. The flavor is also more robust that a typical sparkler.

Famous In Slovenia

 The Furmint grape has been present in Slovenia for more than 1,000 years. The Slovenian name for Furmint is sipon. Supposedly comes from the times of the Illyrian Provinces, when Napoleon’s soldiers, upon drinking the wine, exclaimed “c’est si bon” – which was interpreted as ‘šipon’ by the locals. Furmint is the grape used in Hungary's famous Tokaji dessert wine. The Verus version has a palate of tropical fruits like quince and kiwi. The finish is waxy and almost floral.

Zweigelt is a beautiful Austrian grape. The Netzl 2019 Zweigelt is ruby-garnet in the glass, typical cherry-fruit in the nose. This is a young and charming wine with a smooth, elegant palate and some spice note.

It comes from a blend of several vineyards that enjoy the moderating influence of the River Danube and the Lake Neusiedlersee on their climate. This results in very ripe grapes with good tannins, high ripeness, and intensive and fresh aromas. This winery is in the village of Gottlesbrunn, known for its idyllic taverns offering local foods and wine. It’s a popular destination for day trippers from Vienna

Key To A Great Wine

The 2019 Estate Reserve from Noble Hill comes from the Simonsberg region of South Africa. It’s a blend of 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 11% Petit Verdot and 8% Cabernet Franc. South Africa represents a blending of the best of New World flavors with Old World winemaking. It truly excels in Bordeaux-style blends. We stayed in the Simonsberg area during our visit to the country and each winery surprised us in a good way.

The label is adorned with four keys, one for each of the varieties used in the blend. The wine has tastes of blackberries, plum, and a wee bit of mint. The oak is light, and the tannins are smooth.

We did have another surprise wine, Pol Solanelles brought a bottle of Spanish Macabeo from his family’s winery. What a treat! Cheers to the Little Rock Marriott for being a great venue and to our guests who made it special.

A Wonder-Fall Wine Tasting

A quartet of wines to greet the changing colors of Autumn.

Bubbly Albariño

My tastings with friend Arthur Barham always have a few surprises. During my recent visit, Arthur greeted me with a first for me: sparkling Albariño. The wine was the 2020 “Octopus” from Carboniste, a California winery specializing in unique sparkling wines.

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Octopus is made with grapes grown on Andrus Island in the Sacramento River Delta. The grapes are pressed whole-cluster and four months on the lees.

The pressure and fizz of the Octopus are closer to Prosecco than Champagne. It’s sealed with a crown cap and is fresh and fun once opened. There are notes of green apple and kiwi with a flavor that is more pronounced than any other Albariño only 2% of California vineyards are planted with Albariño.

Sauvignon Blanc From Chile

We then uncorked the Brisandes 2021 Sauvignon Blanc from Colchagua, Chile. The winery is part of the far-flung Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) winemaking dynasty. I bought a number of bottles for our daughter’s birthday and had a couple left over. This wine is intriguing to me because it has a different flavor profile than Sauv Blancs from New Zealand or California.

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The acidity is dialed down and while the grassy notes are present, there is a beautiful salinity along with lime and herbal flavors. Perfect for seafood and also (and I later found out) for a vegan ceviche with cauliflower steaks (and chimichurri sauce) and Chilean rice. This dish was prepared by my vegan chef daughter.

A French Crus Bourgeois

The reds were rolled out by Arthur. First, we sampled the elegant 2018 Château La Valière from Médoc. This is a Crus Bourgeois bottling. This quality level stands just below the Cru Classé but is recognized for its quality all over the world.

This is a Bordeaux blend with Cabernet Sauvignon playing the lead role with plentiful Merlot. Silky smooth with fine tannins, it has a medium body with blackberry and currant flavors and juicy cherry. It’s a refined wine purchased at a steal from WTSO.

Silky Cabernet Sauvignon

Ending with a velvet punch, Arthur popped open the 2020 Annabella Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Annabella (we’re on a first-name basis now) is rich and powerful with blueberry notes and whiffs of leather. The layers include chocolate and hints of spice. This wine eases to a persistent finish with a touch of vanilla.

Thanks to Arthur for sharing his hospitality and his wine.