My Favorite Organic Red

My favorite red wine I tried at the Midtown Winer's organic wine tasting was a Rhone style wine. Before I comment on the wine I thought I'd share about my notes taken during the wine tasting. Looking back at the notes, I noticed that as the evening progressed, my notes were less and less helpful. This was not the result of alcohol effecting me as I was spitting every sip I took the whole night. (It its interesting to note that I sipped and split an amount of wine worth half a 750ml bottle that night.) There were so many wines (21) that our pace was fairly quick. Plus, it was more fun to talk about the wines with my table partners than to write. I think I'll change the format of my tasting notes sheet and practice with them whenever I drink a new wine to get in better practice.

I really liked the 2005 Beckman Cuvee. This wine is a Cote du Rhone-like blend of 53% Grenache, 34% Syrah, 8% Mourvèdre and 5% Counoise. Syrah is my favorite grape of the bunch, but the blending made for a much more interesting wine. When I first sniffed it, it smelled like cabbage or spoiled green vegetables! When I sipped it, the flavor of vegetables was still there, but it combined with the fruit in a good way. This wine would be really good with food.

Beckman Vinyards is in the Santa Ynez Valley AVA in Santa Barbar, California. The Beckmans chose a hillside location to plant their vineyard, which they called Purisima Mountain Vineyard. The soils of the area include clay and clay loam soils and even a rarely seen type in California: limestone. The combination of elevation, moisture and soil allow Beckman Vineyards to grow great Rhone varietals such as Syrah (the predominant grape,) Marsanne, Rousanne, Grenache, Counoise and Mourvedre. The entire property is farmed biodynamically.

Another nice thing about the Beckman wines is their affordable price. The Beckman Cuvee costs around $16 making it an affordable as well as enjoyable Rhone style wine.

Tasing Notes:

Color: Dark red

Aroma: Cabbage and some red fruit

Taste: Vegital (in a good way), cherry, nice tannins.

Finish: The finish was nice and the taste lingered for a while

My Favorite Organic White

On Tuesday I attended an organic wine tasting. Of the 21 wines sampled, eight were white wines, 1 Pinot Blanc, 1 Riesling, 2 Chardonnays and the rest were Sauvignon blancs. My favorite of the whites was a Sauvignon blanc, but a different SB than the group as a whole voted favorite.

I don't know if it was a result of the organic nature of the wines, but most of these whites were a pale yellow, much ligther than the colors I'm used to seeing. The flavors ranged from mild to good to one dimensional to bad. The most expensive wine of the group ($30 Grgich Chardonnay) was the most disappointing. All I tasted was oak!

My favorite was made by organic wine maker Bonterra. Bonterra practices organic and biodynamic farming. They produce affordable wines that I like to drink. I tried their Chardonnay before the wine tasting and enjoyed it. (I decided to bring the Grgich Chardonnay to the tasting because I thought someone else in the group might bring the Bonterra as they are well known as being an organic wine maker.)

The Bonterra Sauvignon Blanc is in a style I like: more minerally than sweet with not much citrus. I have heard that the New Zealand SBs are great and that the French Sancerres are the classic, but I have not tried either of them yet. One thing I like in a SB is what has been described as "cat pee." I don't like the SBs because of the cat pee ordor, its just that they tend to taste the way I prefer. I wonder that I can't pick up the pleasant odors people describe in wines like flowers or blue berries, but I can definitely detect the unpleasant ones!

If you're looking for an affordable organic wine, Bonterra is the way to go.

Tasting Notes:

Color: Very pale yellow, almost clear

Aroma: Earthly, cat pee

Taste: Minerally, nice acidity and not sweet like some SBs

Finish: Not much of a finish

This Sauvignon blanc is definitely a nice wine to sip but it's flavors are stong enough to enjoy with food.

Organic Wine Tasting

I attended a wine tasting last night hosted by the Midtown Winers, a group of friendly wine loving people in the Sacramento area. Our theme last night was Organic Wines. 18 people attended last night's tasting. We were exposed to 21 different wines from all over the world (only 8 were white.) Our theme wasn't defined narrowly, but we were to do research and explain what made our wines "organic." Aside from a very tired and purple tongue, I also got grapes # 40 (Carignan) and 41 (Black Muscat) in towards my century club membership!

In my research about organic wines I came across several arguments that organic wines don't taste good because they are low in sulfites. Sulfites are a natural occuring by-product of fermentaion, so they are present in all wines. However, most wine makers add additional sulfites to help preserve wines. Almost all the wines sampled last night had extra sulfites added, but the one that didn't was really bad tasting.

I also came across an article that argued that biodynamic farming might be the best way of producing "wines of terroir" or wines that express the true expression of the area they are grown in. I'll have to leave that argument to those who have a lot more experience and a much better palate than I do!

There were several great wines, some okay wines, and some defenite stinkers. My favorites were the Rhone blends and the Sauvignon blancs we had. I'll give my tasting notes and impressions in future postings. My over all impression of last nights tasting is that there are a lot more organic growers than I thought there were and that an organic wine doesn't guarentee that the wine will be bad or good. You just have to taste and see what you like!

News and Another Douro

Today's post includes some news about a busy January for wine events and another Douro wine. I periodically attend a monthly wine tasting group in my area. This group of people meets every 1st Tuesday of the month (except for holidays.) This month's theme is organic and biodynamic wines. I hope to go to more meetings this year as the tastings always expose me to more wines than I would find on my own and the people in the group are very friendly. Plus its nice to actually meet face to face with people who share a passion for wine! If you live in the Sacramento area, feel free to join the Midtown Winers (email me if you'd like more information.)

In an effort to immerse myself in the wine blogging world, I'm taking part in Wine Blogging Wednesday #41, a virtual wine tasting where wine bloggers all over the world pick a wine based on the theme and share their tasting notes. This month's theme is wines from the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia in Northern Italy. I've had a Tocai Friulano before, but I want to try something new, so I've lined up a red wine made from the Refosco grape. Even if you don't have a blog, you can participate by posting your tasting notes at the Wine Blogging Site before Wednesday, January 16th.



Dr. Debs from Good Wine Under $20 has formed a new blog group for reading and reviewing wine books. Similar to Wine Blogging Wednesday only with books, we'll all be reading the same wine book and sharing our opinions. Only the "meetings" are every other month to give you more time to read the book. This is a good thing because the first book is "Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy", a 544 page book on the vast and varied wine regions of the second largest producer of wine in the world! Reviews are due February 26th. You can read all the details over on Good Wine Under $20 or on the host for the first event at McDuff's Food and Wine Trail. I've ordered my copy of the book (surprisingly affordable at $18 including shipping for a used copy) and it will arrive soon. (This means I've got to finish the book I started while on vacation, "Enemy at the Gate" about the battle at Stalingrad in World War II. I'm half way through the book and the Russians have just launched a counter offensive against the German invaiders. It's the beggining of winter on the Russian Steppe and I can't leave those poor soldiers waiting while I read a wine book!)

I hope to attend my first barrel tasting at the end of the month at a couple Fair Play wineries in the El Dorado foothills. I'll have a lot of material for wine blogging, but let me talk about another Douro wine first.

Yesterday I posted my pleasant experience with a 2005 Valtorto Douro. I had previously had another Douro and wanted to try it again to see if it too would resemble the taste of Port if left to breathe for awhile. Unfortunately, I did't get the same results. I don't know if this is because the wine has one more varietal than the Valtorto had (Tinta Barroca) or because of the different vintages. The wine was a nice wine, especially given it's $7.00 price, but it didn't have the same spicyness I enjoyed in yesterday's wine.

Charamba Tinto 2004

Tasting Notes:

Color: Ruby red

Aroma: Cherry (smelled like similar to a tempranillo)

Taste: Mild fruit with light tannins

Finish: Slight

Douro: Great wine from "Port" grapes

I'm Back!

Sorry for the prolonged absence and silence. I was on vacation for two weeks. I also changed internet providers at home and was not able to access the internet from home.

Thanks, Dr. Debs, for mentioning this blog in your Good Wine Under $20 blog. I hope you weren't disappointed when I didn't post for so long. I promise to keep up with my posting now that I'm off break. You have been a great encouragement, both in learning about wine and in blogging.

I don't drink much Port, but I do like the wines made from the grapes that go into Port. I'm a big fan of Portuguese wines because of the price and the taste. I had a real treat over my vacation when I had the 2005 Valtorto Douro. It took a little while to fully appreciate this wine, but I learned a cool lesson.

Douro is the region of Portugal where Port is produced. The land and climate seem barely capable of supporting grape vines. Several other wine growing areas have steep hills, but they started out with ample soil. In many Portuguese vineyards, soil had to be carried in to augment the schist and granite. Terraces were built after workers chipped away at rocks and added organic matter. (See the "Vineyard of the day" for an example of a terraced Douro vineyard.)

This area is known for Port, but the grapes that are used to make Port can make a great table wine, too. One of these is made by the Port shipper Wiese & Krohn. They have blended Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz (aka Tempranillo) and Touriga franca into a nice table wine that has some of the distinct flavor of Port without the strong sweetness or alcohol.

When I first tasted the wine it reminded me of a Tempranillo. But when I let the wine sit in my glass for about half an hour it transformed into something different! After it had a chance to breathe, I noticed a plum aroma that I hadn't earlier. When I tasted the wine, I was surprised and pleased by the port like flavor! The next day I drank the wine, I decanted it for about half an hour got the same result. I'll have to see if decanting helps produce the same flavors in other Douro wines I've tried in the past

Tasting Notes:

Color: Ruby red

Aroma: Plum and raisins

Taste: Tastes like Port, but not as sweet. Much less alcohol than a Port, too. The wine has a flavor that resembles the spiciness of Zinfandel and goes with foods like Pizza and spaghetti with spicy sauces.