Another Atlantic Beach Club Wine Tasting

Sandy writes in to report:

Well, you know we love our beach club. They offer three or four wine tastings each summer, and competition is fierce to reserve a table, since the chef limits the number of diners to fifty each time. Barbara and I were thrilled at the last minute to take the place of a couple that couldn’t make it. In the end, though, we were somewhat disappointed with both wine and food pairings.

Opening Wine: Rotari Sparkling Blanc de Noir
A very dry sparkling wine from northern Italy. A blend of Pinot Noir with Chardonnay, light pink in color, and with a silky texture. Aromas of sweet spice and cherry. Emphasis on the very dry. Virtually unyielding to the tongue.

First Course: Castillo de Querceto—Chianti Classico 2003, served with Fried Calamari Puttenesca.
***Corked!***
This is a wine we’ve had before in potable condition. Then it is ruby or black in color, with a nose of roses and violets with macerated cherries. However, who ever heard of serving a corked wine at a wine tasting? The distributor's rep, who visited each table promoting the wines, was slow to admit that the wine was ruined, instead urging us to let it breathe. After forty minutes with the unchanging wine sitting in our glasses, even he had to admit that there was a problem. The Puttanesca sauce, usually made with black olives and capers visible, was pureed, thus taking all the tarty fun out of it.


Second Course: La Tunella—Pinot Grigio 2003, served with Crusted Red Snapper with Roasted Garlic Broccoli Robb.
Pretty good wine with fresh apple and mineral notes. The Red Snapper was tasty—probably the best of the dishes we were served.


Third Course: Raspberry Sorbet.


Fourth Course: Casanova di Neri Brunello Di Montalcino 1998, served with Veal Saltimbucca with Fingerling Potato.
Tongue-curling tannins and firm acidity. This was a very good wine. Veal: kind of yech. Had to drink the wine to cover the taste of the meat. Potato good—best thing on the plate. Tried to convince a table partner who had had a bit to drink earlier in the evening that the potatoes were actually made of fingers.


Fifth Course: Concilio—Barrel Aged Chardonnay Trentino 2000, served with Mesculan Salad with Roma Tomatoes and Portabella Mushrooms.
I’ve never tasted a Chardonnay as dense and sweet as this one. Deep, rich gold color. Fruit and dried flower aroma. Not one I’d want to try again. Odd. Badly paired with the salad, since this seems to be really more of a dessert wine.


Sixth Course: Valdo—Prosecco, served with Cappuccino Tear Drop.
Just what you’d expect from the name: an extremely dry wine. I guess I just don’t have the palate for this.


Barbara and I concluded that other diners were likewise unsatisfied with the offerings. Dinner over, we all moved over to the bar, where many began gulping Scotch. This isn’t the kind of end of a wine tasting that a promoter should consider positive commentary on his products.

1970 VEGA SICILIA UNICO

As regards the 1970 Vega Sicilia Unico, one of the world's greatest wines ever made, Tom writes in from a recent tasting (ye NY Wine Club members should remember this wine):

"Deep ruby color. Aromas of red and black fruits, spice, leather and cedar. Medium to full bodied with rich fruits, cedar, tobacco and leather. Very concentrated and complex. Very seductive. A long, long finish. Fantastic wine."

The wine is so fabulous, Tom reminds, and Vega Sicilia knew what it had one its hands, such that they did not release the 1970 for 25 years -- to wit, 1995 -- to make sure that the wine was fully mature before the drinking public got its hands on it!

WEDDING WINES!

Looking forward to the October nuptials for Michelle and Rhett. They recently did a wine tasting at the hotel which will host their wedding reception. Here's Michelle's report:

We chose the BV Chardonnay and stayed with the house Trapiche-Penaflor Merlot from Argentina.

The Penaflor Chardonnay was trying to be crisp and fruity but was neither and came off rather sharp. And I don't know how much it would mellow out really. The BV Chardonnay had a creamy taste, touch of Vanilla, that was easy to drink. I liked it. A wine that I could keep drinking. This should go well with any of the main dishes.

The Merlot could have used a few more minutes than when we drank it right after opening. Light on tannins, easy to drink red. A slight bouquet, some fruit, touch of spice. I hope it goes well with the lechon during the cocktail hour.

Trapiche-Penaflor is made by one of the largest wine producers in Argentina, Bodegas Esmeralda. According to this 1995 Wine Spectator article, over half of Trapiche-Penaflor is exported as bulk wine. They consider themselves the Gallo of Argentina. I wasn't completely satisfied with the Merlot but had left that decision with the Fiance as he tends to be the red drinker. I may try to sneak a taste of perhaps one of the Zinfandels or a Shiraz, before finalizing the decision.

Choosing wines for a wedding is tricky considering most people aren't necessarily wine drinkers and you want something that is generally pleasant yet not forward in any way. It's like choosing a "polite" wine, one that knows proper chit-chat, but doesn't overstep the boundaries of etiquette to make anyone uncomfortable. You want a wine that people will drink.

My Filipino family tend not to be wine experts as it is difficult to get decent wine in the Philippines. Though when my friend had his wedding there he did manage to score several cases of a decent Spanish table red wine to serve at the reception. But my uncles are quite the connoisseurs of whisky.

We also decided not to host an open bar at all during the wedding reception since we're already providing champagne and two bottles of wine. Besides we had to choose between lechon or open bar and we went with what could be enjoyed by the most guests. We also sacrificed a few chair covers as well.

2004 DUTCH HENRY CABERNET FRANC

So we're over at Dutch Henry for lunch, as we often are on Saturdays, and wine maker Scott Chafen dips a glass into a barrel to give us an advance taste of the 2004 cabernet franc. Make a note to get it as soon as it's released next year. Deep, rich, black fruits and salle leeather. Excellent structure. Full body. Lingering finish. Scott says he plans to blend it with some cabernet before finalizing. It will be great!

FROM PASO ROBLES & TEMPLETON, THE BAD NEWS AND THE GOOD NEWS

Tom and I did a road trip this weekend between San Francisco and Ojai. Off of Highway 101, we zipped into Paso Robles to do some wine tastings, one good and the other bad.

First, the bad news -- PEACHY CANYON WINERY where we did a zinfandel tasting. The wines were generally disappointing (and thus also aggressively priced); in order of tasting here they are:

2002 Eastside: -- $15. mild spice, bright cherries and strawberries, light oak.

2003 Westside -- $19. more spicey. Cherries, vanilla, black pepper, cedar and cinnamon but was a little green in the finish and not as lush as we would have desired.

2003 Old School House -- $26. black cherry, clove, cocoa. Too much oak although it came with decent spice.

2003 Mustang Springs -- $26. cherry, eucalyptus, not balanced but does have more intense fruit.

2003 Snow Vineyard -- $26. mint, strawberries, plums, cherries. vanilla. 'Twas young in a pleasant way.

2003 Especial -- $30. basil, nutmeg, black pepper, vanilla and berries

2003 Luv-a-Duck -- coffee, cinnamon, warm apple pie.

This visit was disappointing to us as Tom remembered once drinking and loving a Peach Canyon wine years ago. And, geez, the aggressive sales over the tasting bar! A combination of mediocrity with aggressive sales tactic means we're unlikely ever to return here.

THANKFULLY, SOME GOOD NEWS over at TURLEY WINES, Templeton. We had no disagreement with their printed wine tasting notes (if vague, but then wine tasting notes are often vague) so I'll just replicate here (words in italics are moi dos centavos or notes):

2001 "Pesenti Vineyard" Paso Robles Zin: $40. Drink now or hold a few more years. Bottle age has benefited this wine by softening the edges and creating a velvety texture. We love the rich, ripe fruit and multiple layers. A stand out zin in our Paso Robles portfolio! Fragrant nose -- the wine apparently started to come out of its shell this spring....

2003 "Grist Vineyard" Dry Creek Valley Zin: $46. The color is as bright as the flavors which include red fruits, roses and candied berries. More than the aromas, however, it is the texture of this wine that makes it delicious -- clean, refreshing and straight forward demonstrating balance and finesse.

2002 "Dusi Vineyard" Paso Robles Zin. $48. Dusie Vineyard offers up huge aromatics from dark berry fruit to baking spices. ON the palate, it is complex and ripe with firm acidity and plenty of tannin.

2002 "White Coat" San Luis Obispo County Rhone Style Blend: $35. This blend of Roussane, Marsanne and Viognier has a seductive nose with nuances of honeysuckle and melon. Flavors of stone fruits mingle with notes of citrus, almond and honey. It finishes with crisp, clean grapefruit. Softly yummy.

Proof of the pudding? Among the wines tasted, bout was the 2002 "White Coat" San Luis Obispo County Rhone Style Blend. We also bought the 2002 "Tofanelli Vineyard" Napa Valley Charbono ($32) and the 2002 "Hayne Vineyard" Napa Valley Petitie Syrah ($75). Here are the winery's tasting notes for the latter two:

2002 "Tofanelli Vineyard" Napa Valley Charbono: AKA "Purple Haze" this superdark wine has aromas of pepper, tar and concentrated grape and blueberry fruit with interesting floral and spice notes.

2002 "Hayne Vineyard" Napa Valley Petitie Syrah: Inky dark and chewy describes this wine. Wonderful chocolate and floral aromas can be found intertwined between blueberry and spice. The wine is rounc, rich and thick and the tannins are seamlessly integrated, making it surprisingly silky. The finish is long, deep and complex, with layered flavors of dark fruits, spice and classic Petite Syrah meatiness.

$20 GETS YOU GOLD, LITERALLY!

Last night, we had dinner at Mustard's with Seth, one of the hubby's partners who was visiting from New York. We naturally brought over wines from the cellar, and had anticipated bringing over a bottle of the 2002 Batard-Montrachet Boillot to start. A few hours earlier, however, we were in the local photo/frame store developing some photos of our beloved German Shepherds Achilles and Gabriela; there, we bumped into Jason Woodbridge, proprietor of impressive One Hundred Acres vineyard.

Jason tells us of one of his new projects, GOLD, which was just released this year. This is a chardonnay blended with other varietals in Australia; Jason wouldn't identify the mix as the blend is "proprietary" information but it was easy enough later to taste the viognier in the glass. Anyway, Jason was also developing some photos and he showed us the very elegantly designed bottle, and added that it was available at the St. Helena Wine Center which is a few feet away from the photo frame store. So, Tom and I went over and picked up a couple of bottles to taste.

Here's the thing -- it's $20; Jason said he's doing this primarily for fun and not to make money and it shows since that packaging -- embossed white paper labels -- is worth more than $20 to admire. And why is it called "GOLD"? Check this out -- there are genuine 24-karat gold flakes shimmering through the wine. Well! We quickly replaced the dinner white, even if it's Batard-Montrachet, for one of the GOLD bottles -- I wanted to know what it was like to sip, literally, gold.

As it turns out, I couldn't detect a taste associated with those gold flakes though Tom said he felt their grit against his teeth...but the wine itself was a very enjoyable experience which didn't make us begrudge the curiosity that made us defer the Batard-Montrachet.

Tasting notes: A yummy combination of melon and citrus. Very nice acid and a good balance between fruit and acidity. Pleasurable, with a slightly lingering finish that makes it a great summer white. Clearly meant to be enjoyed, not stored.

It's a great story for the price: in addition to everything else, it adds adds bling bling to your poop. (Heee!) Anyway, this is GOLD's first year and Jason says there were 2,000 cases brought into the U.S., with 8,000 cases left in Australia. Over time, though, they hope to increase production of this "table wine" to the 75-80,000 case range. But mayhaps you heard about it here first...?