Two Hands 2016 Gnarly Dudes Shiraz, Barossa Valley

Two Hands is a winery that is making a splash internationally. They have captured our attention with artfully crafted wines that express the terroir of superb Australian regions including McLaren Vale and Barossa Valley.

Gnarly, Dude!

This wine’s name is not an attempt to appeal to California surfers! Gnarly Dudes by Two Hands was inspired by the Cohen Brothers movie The Big Lebowski and is also named for the gnarly old Shiraz vines used. The grapes are from Barossa Valley, Australia’s most famous wine region.

We’re big fans of Two Hands and are pleased to see they are generating significant buzz in the US with the wine media and consumers. Two Hands Gnarly Dudes can be found in Costco and in other stores I’ve overhead customers quizzing the wine manager about the availability of Two Hands.

Two Hands Winery was founded in 1999 by Michael Twelftree and Richard Mintz. Today, Two Hands is owned by Michael, together with Colorado native Tim Hower. The goal then and now is to make the best possible Shiraz-based wines from prized growing regions throughout Australia. Determined to be different than the formulaic style of Shiraz sold internationally, Two Hands turned the focus on spotlighting the regional and vineyard characteristics. In short, they are focused on the fruit.

We recently tasted the 2016 Gnarly Dudes Shiraz and it is a joyful wine. At our farewell party in Ohio (prior to our move to North Carolina) we uncorked “the Dude” and it impressed with rich Shiraz flavors. This is a wine that can be appreciated by a connoisseur or a novice. In the glass it is a dark purple. It is rich and plush with deep blackberry flavors. This is a refined and integrated wine.

Shiraz, Syrah: Two Sides Of The Same Coin

For those unfamiliar with Shiraz, it is the same grape as Syrah. The styles of the wines produced by the grape can vary. Shiraz is a signature red grape of Australia. Some Shiraz from down under can have a degree of sweetness but it is also capable of producing some of the world’s greatest wines.

The 2016 Dude gets 12 months in 15% in new French oak and the remainder in one to six-year-old French oak barrels. The alcohol is 13.8%. This is a wine that can age for six to 10 years, but drinks beautifully now. We recently tried the 2014 vintage, and the two extra years of bottle age added to the beauty of the wine. Gnarly Dudes retails for about $32 and is a delectable value at that price.

Put your Two Hands in the air for this outstanding wine!

Full disclosure: We received this wine as a marketing sample.

Faust 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

Want to dip your toe into the pool of high-end Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon? Faust Cabernet delivers a deluxe experience without the sticker shock of the ultra-premium Cabs.

Just A Glass Before I Go

We’ve just completed a major migration and life milestone. After more than two decades in northwest Ohio, we pulled up stakes and moved to Fuquay-Varina in North Carolina. (Oh that it were that easy!).

Our farewell party was orchestrated by the Green Dragon. My wife selected the theme of a “mismatch” party. This was because almost all of our clothes, glasses and belongings were packed up and ready to load on the moving van. We were left with random remnants. Guests were encouraged to wear wildly mismatched outfits. They certainly did – my eyes are still hurting.

I’ll relate more of the details – and the wine – in the near future. One thing that wasn’t mismatched, however, was our choice of Cabernet, the 2014 Faust Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

Affordable Luxury

Faust is the brainchild of long time Chilean born Vintner, Agustin Huneeus. He is well known for opening ultra-premium winery Quintessa in Napa. With Faust, the focus is on Napa Valley Cabernet. If you are looking for a Faust Chardonnay, forget it. Fruit for Faust is from Huneeus family vineyards in Rutherford and Coombsville plus small lots from areas such as Atlas Peak, Mount Veeder, Oakville and St. Helena. These are some of the prime Cabernet sites in all the world.

The 2014 vintage of Faust costs $55, but I’ve seen it online for five bucks less. It compares very favorably to Napa or Sonoma Cabs that cost $75 to $100. The quality in winemaking is evident from the moment the cork is popped.

In the glass this is a dark ruby and a dense wine. On the palate the wine coats, with lush flavors of black cherry, cocoa and herbal notes. There is a rich, rewarding finish.

We served bratwurst and a variety of side dishes were brought by party-goers. The main pairing for this bottle, however, was friendship. Dancing, eating, drinking and socializing went on well into the evening. The Faust was a superb wine to savor while we reflected on past experiences and times shared with good friends.

We’re now about 600 miles from tasting team members Cabernetor and Glorious T, which whom we’ve shared many bottles and adventures. We’ve already talked about doing some virtual tastings together – to tide us over until the fall when we will be together again in Sonoma.

Faust is highly recommended as a Napa Cab that won’t batter your budget, and whose quality will make memories with your best friends.

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

Before You Visit Your Next Winery, Check Our Online Reports

A winery visit can be spectacular – or a complete bust. What makes the difference? After visiting more than 100 different wineries, here’s our inside scoop.

We Have Reports On More Than 130 Wineries

I just recently glanced at our winery reports page and counted 133 entries. We’ve visited many more than that, probably closer to the 150 mark.

Some of those visits have been memorable – sipping outstanding wine in the dappled sunshine while being caressed by gentle breezes. But some have been memorable for the wrong reasons.

The bad winery visits can remind you of an episode of Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey going ballistic after discovering an oozing mess in the walk-in cooler.

Well, what is it that makes a winery visit an experience to savor?

Based on our experience, we consider three factors. If a winery scores big in all three dimensions, you can ink in a big star on the wine trail map – marking it for repeated visits.
In our experience, you need the “three goods:” 1. Good winery grounds and tasting room, 2. Good tasting room staff, and 3. Good wine.

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Number One: Good Winery Grounds And Tasting Room

Upon arrival, nothing sets the stage like seeing an impressive, quirky or scenic winery building. It gives you good vibrations right from the start. There’s nothing worse than rumbling up to the next stop on the wine trail, looking at your companion asking, “Should we go in, or just turn around?”
Having an awesome tasting room doesn’t mean you will have world class wine, but it shows the caliber of the operation. Chances are that even average wine will taste a lot better in a tasting room with a floor to ceiling window overlooking a lake than in what appears to be a farmer’s converted garage.

One of the nicest tasting rooms we’ve visited is Heron Hill in the Finger Lakes. You are impressed from a half mile away and even more blown away once you are inside. Lamoreaux Landing and Glenora are two other stand-out Finger Lakes establishments. The winery buildings in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Stellenbosch (South Africa), and Lake Okanogan (British Columbia) are also spectacular.
There is also a lot to be said for grounds with picnic tables and scenic views of mountains, vineyards or lakes.

Number Two: Good Tasting Room Staff

Someone save us from uninformed, unhelpful and unpleasant tasting room staff. You’ve made the decision to stop for a tasting and enter the building. The next moment of truth is the tasting room attendant.

In some wineries, like Bully Hill in the Finger Lakes, the staff ARE the attractions – entertaining guests with humorous stories and gags while dispensing detailed knowledge of the winery’s goods. A good staff can also help guide you to the wines you will most enjoy.
On a good day, your tasting room attendant will generate warmth, be a helpful advisor and sell a lot of wine.

The other end of the spectrum includes those who are too busy to tell you about the wine, those who don’t know what is in a particular wine and those who are doing it without a true love of wine.

This factor is probably even more important than an impressive building. At this point you're already invested in making a stop and if you get a bummer of a host, you’ll feel it’s been a waste of time.

Check Out Our Winery Reports Page To Plan Your Next Visit!

Number Three: Good Wine

Excellent wine can supersede almost any other flaw in your winery visit. This is the final piece of the puzzle. If you’re sipping an especially robust Cabernet Franc in a groovy tasting room while the tasting room attendant is telling you an intriguing story about how the owner started the winery, you have hit the trifecta!

If Numbers 1 and 2 are locked in, you have a better than even chance you’ll be tasting some good wine. But there is no guarantee.

While we were up in the Niagara Peninsula, we made a stop at a winery that looked very impressive from the road. The building was of a modern design built from local stone. Inside the tasting room glittered as track lighting glinted off racks of bottles in impressive displays.

Unfortunately, the wine was just “mehh”…

Once you have achieved the “three goods,” that is the time to turn to your companions, smile and raise a toast. You are living the good life!

Wines of Germany Offer Decades Of Satisfaction

Decades ago Green Dragon and I took the first steps in our wine odyssey. It started with German wine. Years later, a pair of wines from Deutschland deliver that “lovin’ feeling” once again.

That First Sweet Sip

Many calendar pages ago, I was a crusading newspaper editor and reporter in West Virginia. I wanted to impress my beautiful date by taking her to a classy event – a wine tasting.

That young lady was the Green Dragon, my future wife. To say that we were wine newbies would be an overstatement. This one evening would be the beginning of a lifelong love affair – that includes my wife too.

We attended a wine tasting hosted by Les Amis du Vin – the friends of wine – held at the Paramount Arts Center in Ashland, Kentucky. A wine distributor was there and with a wide array of German wines. He also handed out a booklet, “A Short Guide to German Wines.” As I was going through some old boxes last week, I found the booklet after many years – like a miner finding a large gold nugget.Those wines and that booklet made us lovers of German wines to this day.

Our palate wasn’t well developed, but we knew what we liked – sweet white German wine! We started there and the little booklet, featuring a cartoonish character in lederhosen, gave us excellent information on how to enjoy the wine and the different quality levels.

Evolution Of German Wines

Germany is consistently among the top 10 wine exporters in the world. Globally, tastes change – just like our palate gravitated to drier wine. Winemaking in Germany has evolved too – today about two-thirds of the country’s wine production is dry.

Although Germany produces many wines, it’s reputation is built upon world-class Riesling. These wines are complex with the ability to age – a rarity among white wines.

I’ve gained an even greater enthusiasm for German wine (if that’s possible) with my recent discovery of VDP wines. This is the designation for the Association of German Pradikat Wine Estates (for which the German acronym is VDP). The group, founded in 1910, is an organization of Germany’s leading wine estates. In 2002 they announced the first classification system for vineyards, modeled after Burgundy. We recently tasted two VDP Rieslings: 2015 von Winning Ruppertsberger Reiterpfad Riesling Trocken, Pfalz, and 2014 St. Urbans-Hof Nik Weis Riesling Kabinett, Ockfener Bockstein, Mosel.

A Satisfying Pair

Mosel is the most famous German wine region, known for its high acid Riesling. The St. Urbans-Hof winery uses traditional methods that have been customary in the Mosel and Saar valleys since Roman times. This includes the “heart-binding” trellis system whereby the canes of the vine are tied into heart shapes.

This Kabinett is golden in the glass. On the palate the wine has a rich texture, thicker than most still wines. The flavor notes are all citrus with lemon at the forefront. This is a sweet wine. A good way to get an indication of the sweetness of Riesling is to look at the percentage of alcohol. The lower the alcohol, the sweeter it is because the winemaking process basically converts sugar to alcohol. This is a satisfying bottle that retails for $22.

The Von Winning Trocken (dry) Riesling is from Ruppertsberg, which is known for producing some of the finest Riesling in Pfalz. We were fans of this winery based on their “Winnings” Riesling, an exceptional value we tried last year.

While the Bockstein is all citrus, the Ruppertsberg Trocken is all about tropical fruit. The lower residual sugar and precisely balanced acidity makes this a standout wine. It is a rich and opulent wine with flavor threads of honeysuckle and pineapple. We enjoyed this with some bratwurst during a cookout. The Von Winning paired outrageously well with the sunny afternoon, brats, music and dancing on our patio! It retails for $35.

German Riesling is one of the world’s best wines. Grab a glass. Like us, you may find a new passion that will last decades.

Full disclosure: These wines were received as a marketing sample.

California Rosé Delivers Warm Weather Satisfaction

Rosé could be the most versatile wine for pairing with food. Add to that the visual delight and the refreshment value and you have a winning combination. These two rosé from California make our point.

Elevating The Art of Rosé

We previously declared this part of the year as the Summer of Rosé. Everywhere you look, pink predominates – on store shelves, at wine shop tastings and at backyard cookouts.

There are at least two reasons for this. First, the public is becoming more educated about rosé. Poorly made, overly sweet rosé is a thing of the past. That’s been true for a number of years, but now an increasing number of wine lovers are tuned in. It’s caught the public’s imagination -- like the fidget finger stress reducers. The second reason is that a wide array of quality rosé is now available at great values. As part of the Wine Studio online education program, we had recently an opportunity to enjoy rosé from Bonterra and Conn Creek.

Raising A Glass

We enjoyed the Bonterra 2016 Rosé with maple glazed cedar plank salmon. The wine is mostly Grenache (74%) blended with smaller amounts of Sangiovese and Nebbiolo. The vineyards at Bonterra have been farmed organically since 1987 and Mendocino County producer has a focus on sustainability.

This is one of the most enjoyable rosé we’ve had in recent months. As with all rosé, we suggest serving with a nice chill. In the glass this is a pale salmon color – perfect for our fish. The aroma is a swirl of tropical fruit and strawberry.

On the palate there is more strawberry with peach notes. It’s light, crisp and refreshing. We dig the blend, incorporating three of our favorite grapes. Nebbiolo is a rarity in rosé.
There’s no deep thinking involved in the Bonterra rosé – just sit back and enjoy the experience. At $16, it certainly is an affordable luxury.

Conn Creek is known for producing premium Napa wines, including Anthology, their high-end Cabernet Sauvignon blend. With their Conn Creek Rosé of Malbec 2016 Antica Vineyard, Atlas Peak, Napa Valley they show a more delicate touch.

This wine was part of a patio gourmet pizza party. Beneath the bright blue sky and wafting white clouds of Ohio, we uncorked the Conn Creek and savored.

The grapes come from the Atlas Peak appellation of Napa Valley. This is usually the domain of premium Cabernet grapes. Conn Creek is a boutique winery and so the rosé is a small lot made in the spirit of experimentation and fun. Only 67 cases were produced.

As you might expect from such a renowned winery, this is a well-crafted wine. The grapes were handpicked and were whole cluster pressed. The later gives more body to the wine and we found greater depth of flavor in the glass.

The wine veers to the redder end of the pink spectrum. In the glass there are flavors of red berries and cooling minerality. It paired nicely with the variety of pizza we enjoyed, which had toppings ranging from feta cheese to pineapple.

The Conn Creek rosé retails for $24. That’s an exceptional value for a single vineyard wine from a premier Napa Valley producer.

There’s still time to enjoy the Summer of Rosé. Grab a bottle and join the parade!

New Zealand’s Villa Maria Wines Blend Sustainability, Variety

For more than 50 years, Villa Maria has been a leader in the New Zealand wine industry. We open some bottles to discover why this winery in a tiny country is making such a big splash.

A Visit To New Zealand

New Zealand is a country about the size of Japan in the southwest Pacific. Although it is often lumped together with Australia in the minds of many, it is actually more than 2,500 miles away. New Zealand offers a dizzying array of terrain including glaciers, fiords, mountains, plains, rolling hillsides, subtropical forest, a volcanic plateau and miles of coastline. The unique combination of climate, soil and water results in conditions just right for outstanding wine.

We recently toured New Zealand. One day, maybe next year, we’ll tour it firsthand. But most recently, it was an armchair tour courtesy of Villa Maria, a leading New Zealand winery, and Snooth, the online wine site which hosted a virtual tasting.

Villa Maria was started by George Fistonich, who leased five acres of land in the early ‘60s. Today they export to 50 countries, employ 250 staff and are known for industry-changing moves such as moving to 100% screwcap closures and the emphasis on sustainable practices in every area of the family owned company

Sauvignon Blanc Yes, But So Much More

Green Dragon loves, loves, loves New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. It is the epitome of New World wine – bold, fruit-forward flavors that can be enjoyed with or without food. My wife could drink a river of it.

If Sauvignon Blanc is all that New Zealand contributed to the world, that would be enough. But as we discovered during our tasting, their winemaking prowess isn’t confined to Sauvignon Blanc. Spread over two nights, we sampled a sextet of Villa Maria wines accompanied by some of Green Dragon’s culinary creations. Our tasting panel consisted of Green Dragon, my brother Tom and his wife Helen plus our friend Maria. (We explained that we arranged a tasting of Villa Maria wines in her honor!)

We actually tried two Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc. The 2016 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is light yellow in color with an aroma of cut grass. On the tongue there is mouthwatering acidity with notes of honeysuckle, lemon and apricot. This version is not as jarringly acidic as some New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, and so I would categorize this as a crowd pleaser that wine experts and newbies can enjoy together. At $13, this is a downright steal.

The next Sauvignon Blanc was distinctly different from the rest of the wines. It was a bubbly and in fact, is called Bubbly. The wine is made as a regular Sauvignon Blanc, but then is carbonated with the injection of carbon dioxide. It’s unfair to compare this with a true Champagne or a Cava. Those undergo a second fermentation in the bottle. This is frizzante in style – lightly effervescent, just enough to tickle your nose. It was refreshing during the hot evening on the back patio. It has a $15 SRP.

We sampled the 2016 Private Bin Rosé with Amaretto chicken. This is a Hawkes Bay wine made primarily from Merlot. This is a delightful wine that’s light rose in color with a light-medium body. It has flavors of candied rose petals – but remains crisp and dry. This is a sure winner for hot weather refreshment and is another bargain at $14.

The remaining white was the 2015 Taylors Pass Vineyard Chardonnay. The Single Vineyard series is a range above the Private Bin series. In the case of the Taylors Pass Chard, the results are evident in the glass.

The wine is whole cluster pressed and is aged on the lees for nine months. It is oaked in a combination of 25% new and 75% seasoned French oak. The wine also undergoes malolactic fermentation.

We served the Chardonnay with pierogi and passion fruit carrots. The wine has a buttery aroma and on the palate there are notes of oak, toast and butter all tied together with nice acidity. It retails for $45.

Reds New Zealand Style

There was a duo of Villa Maria reds to sample. We tasted the Cellar Selection Merlot blend with Green Dragon’s Texas barbeque. This was the first wine we opened. I’m not sure there’s any connection between Texas and New Zealand – but it was a nice evening and we had a hankering for a cookout.

The blend is 70% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Malbec. It hails from Hawkes Bay, where the climate is more suited to the production of high quality Cabernet and Merlot than Marlborough.

This is a deep, dark red in the glass – almost opaque. On the palate Green Dragon found Bing cherry and mulberry. There is a smidge of spice on the finish.

The wine is aged 20 months in French oak, but even so, our barbeque was a bit overpowering for it. A pork or lighter beef entree would have made a better match for this medium bodied wine.
New Zealand Pinot Noir has been getting a lot of buzz lately, and so we were glad to sample the Villa Maria 2014 Cellar Selections Pinot Noir from Marlborough. This paired nicely with the variety of small artisan pizzas rustled up by Green Dragon.

Marlborough has high heat during the daytime, but the temperatures are regulated by cooling ocean breezes. This is just the recipe for the notoriously difficult Pinot Noir grapes. The Villa Maria Pinot delivers herbal and smoky notes overlaid on red fruit flavor. The acidity keeps this a lively sip. The wine ages in French oak for 10 months and also gives time on the lees for added texture. It retails for $26.

In all, Villa Maria offers a tasty range of New Zealand wines. They are priced to overdeliver on value and present a wide range of styles. There’s surely one (or several) to appeal to any wine lover.

Full Disclosure: We received this wine as a marketing sample.