The Daily Grapevine
KS: Champagne - My New Years eve surprise
The most surprising event of New Year’s Eve to me, was the bottle of Kirkland Signature Champagne we cracked open - for a price of only $26 dollars, it’s a no-brainer.
Excellent floral components, good amount of bubbles and a nice, long finish make this one of the better bottles I’ve had recently and the first bottle the wife and I finished together in one-night.
If you’re looking for a great value in actual juice from France, you’ll be hard-pressed to find better value out there.
It’s a blend of mostly Chardonnay, coupled with Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier - no matter how you stack it, this Champagne rocks it out of the park with layers of fresh fruits - hints of green apples, nice floral compontents and other goodness is in a glass of it.
Kudos to Costco for picking a brilliant producer to make this wine for them.
W.E.P. Score: 100%
Another year - almost here and other junk
Sorry for the site down-time the last couple of days - our host was doing some switch-aroo around, placing the server on a better power-source with remote rebooting capacity and other stuff.
With 2009 starting tomorrow, there hasn’t been a more exciting time to me to make a New Year’s resolution to not only start drinking wine (if you’re not into it yet), but to also make it the year you start trying new wines. It’ll behoove you to branch out and try new things -I think you’ll be amazed at what you end up liking.
Sugar Plums? Why Not?
Ever wonder what Sugar Plums are? Well, my mom sent me a recipe years ago and I’ve played around with it a little bit. They are an old-fashioned treat which is also good for you. Get your kids involved and have fun with this cold weather kitchen project. They are ideal for anyone watching the consumption of dairy, wheat or fat.
Sugar Plums
Ingredients:
- 1 cup dried date pieces
- 1 cup golden raisons
- 1/2 cup dried cherries
- 1/2 cup dried apricots
- 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon orange juice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/3 cup white or turbinado sugar
Place the dried date pieces and golden raisons in a food processor.
Add dried cherries, apricots, white chocolate chips, walnuts and cinnamon. Pulse several times to chop coarsely. Add the orange juice and vanilla extract; pulse until mixture holds together. Form into 1 inch balls and roll in the sugar. Cover and refrigerate until firm.
Tip: Wet your hands slightly when rolling the balls to prevent them sticking.
Nielsen Shows Brown Liquor Grows Quicker
Source: Blog Nielsen
In recent years, white spirits have dominated Bev-Al sales in the U.S., but now brown spirits — led by whiskey — appear to be making a comeback.
According to Nielsen, U.S. sales growth for whiskey and brown spirits is outperforming the growth rate of the overall spirits category in 2008.
Whiskey growth rates have been rising steadily this year, with whiskey dollar sales increasing nearly $85 million or 4.4% in 2008 — up from 2.3% a year ago. At the same time, whiskey volume, while declining a year ago, is now showing growth.
In comparison, dollar sales growth for all spirits has largely remained unchanged.
The brown resurgence is being led by Bourbons, which doubled their dollar growth rate from a year ago. Gains from the Canadian Whiskey, Blended Whiskey, and Irish Whiskey segments have also boosted sales of brown spirits.
Despite the struggling economy, ultra-premium products, with an average price of approximately $45 per bottle, continue to record the strongest growth rates among brown spirits.
Outside the U.S., whiskey sales are also trending upward, with 12 other countries, including Venezuela, Russia, Netherlands, Poland, Mexico, Turkey, and Bulgaria, recording double digit growth.
Brown spirits include all whiskeys: Bourbon/Straight, Blends, Canadian, Scotch, Irish, etc., as well as Cognac/Brandy. White spirits include Vodka, Gin, Tequila and Rum, even if such categories might include aged — and hence brown — variants.
A pair of Tsillan Whites
Winery Website: www.tsillancellars.com
The name Tsillan is the original Native American word we now say as Chelan - which is a deep, long, lake up in north-central Washington State and is quickly rising up as one of the state’s destination wine tourist spots. Know for its long, hot summers and aird climate, it’s no wonder why so many people are finding excuses to start-up wineries around such a gorgeous area.
Tsillan Cellars is really no different than quite a number of other winery stories - some rich doctor, with lot of money and time on his hands starts-up a winery to pursue his/her dreams - hires a talented winemaker and the rest (so they hope) takes care of itself.
It’s a good thing for us wine-drinkers and the local economy of Chelan that Dr. Bob Jankelson did have plenty of both on-hand as his winery is the largest producer of wine in that area and happens to do a pretty good job of making quality wines.
2006 Tsillan Estate Riesling:
- Alcohol: 13.0%
- pH: 3.00
- TA: 7.2g/L
- RS: 17.0g/L
- VA: 0.24g/L
- F/TSO2: 28/100ppm
Nose: Green apple, hints of apricot, slight petrol and some jasime tea leaves round out the nose.
Taste: Great river-rock-like taste that’s been laced with green apples and apricots - it’s up in my grill and I love it. Excellent acidity which makes this wine a great food wine as well. Great lingering finish that hangs around quite nicely.
This is a good wine, however, at its current price there are other Rieslings which I enjoy more like the Poet’s Leap or Ventana winery out of Monterey California. One of the great things about the Tsillan is how it really does do a good job of presenting the terrior of where its grapes came from. A solid effort.
W.E.P. Rating: 85%
2007 Tsillan Estate Pinot Grigio:
- Bottling Alcohol: 13.99%
- pH: 3.29
- TA: 6.9g/L
- RS: 7.0g/L
- VA: 0.02g/L
- F/TSO2: 35/98ppm
Nose: Orange blossom, white grape skins mixed with hints of stone and gravel. I’m also picking up some nice tropic-action like mango, grapefruit and kiwi.
Taste: Waves of vanilla-laden mango and grapefruit flood the palate with excellent balance of acidity and fruit-fowardness which I’m diggin on. The finish lasts quite awhile and I really like this wine - a lot. I really appreciate the sense of earthiness I’m getting from this wine - it’s as if someone took all the fruit I’ve descibed here and buiried it in pea-gravel, clay and limestone. Even hints of flint are coming thru as well.
W.E.P. Rating: 95%
The Daily Grapevine
- Top 100 Wines in 2008
- Italy is now the world’s biggest wine producer
- Smaller brands lead growth in U.S. wine consumption
- Wine priced to sweeten further drops in the Dow
- Worthwhile bottles at the bottom of the list
- Wine boosts Omega-3s for Healthier Heart
- Burgundy Wine sales slump due to UK Squeeze
- Dom Perignon pays homage to Claudia Schiffer
- Icewine harvest begins in Niagra
How It’s Made - Bacon
Meyer’s Family Cellars Port Wine
Winery Website: www.meyerfamilycellars.com
I’m sure many of you have heard of the Meyer’s family out of California - if not, you’re almost certain to have heard about their work on making the Silver Oak brand synonymous with best-of-class California Cab. This family has a tradion steeped in wine making and has been involved with producing high quality wines for several decades.
Matt and Karen Meyer met while working together at an Oregon vineyard, got married and not too long ago launched their own winery. Matt’s experience of growing up in the then-great Silver Oak days proved to be essential to his passion for making the best of what he can - year in and year out.
Karen is from the land down-under and has a similar background in the wine-making business there - both her and Matt share an unadultered passion and zeal for wine making - they both work on the wines they now make.
For those who might be new to Winefoot.com - let me get this off my chest - I LOVE ZINFANDEL. There, it’s out in the open - it truely is a grape that America owns - we do it better than anyone else and having it made into a port wine like this one shows how great it is - even in a variety of ways.
Meyer Family Port Facts:
Appellation: California
Grape Varieties: A solera-style blend, primarily old-vine California Zinfandel
Spirit: Pot-Still Alembic Zinfandel Brandy
Residual Sugar: 8%
Alcohol by Volume: 18%
Age at Release: 8 Years
Bottle Size: 500 ml
Price: $35
Smell: black plums and black cherries coupled with some home-made fruit-cake action and spice.
Taste: massive blackberry and plums coming thru across the plate which ends very nicely with some sweetened holiday spice action. If you took some black cherries and shoved them inside of a piece of fruit-cake, added in hints of pepper - you’d pretty much have this wine. Excellent finish that simply begs you to take another sip - I’d recommend putting on a seatbelt as this wine will certainly take your tastebuds on a killer journey.
Would pair great with:
- dark chocolate
- stinky cheeses
- BBQ Ribs
W.E.P. Score: 100%
Novelty Hill’s WineFoot Debut
Winery Website: www.noveltyhillwines.com
For the past few years now, lots of washingtonians have been super excited about what’s been going on at Woodinville-based Novelty Hill Winery - it’s winemaker, Mike Januik is one of the state’s superstars and rightly so. His wines have a stellar track-record of kicking ass and taking names - he is held in high regard by both industry professionals and by the many fans of his work.
It was for good reason that the family-owned Novelty Hill Winery hired this guy to make its wine - and they’ve provided him a world-class vineyard in Eastern Washington called Stillwater Creek.
2006 Chardonnay - Stillwater Creek:
Technical Data:
Case Production: 1,375
Alcohol: 13.5%
pH: 3.35
Total Acidity: 0.50 grams/100 ml
Barrel fermented in new and one-year-old French oak
Malolactic fermentation
Sur lie aging for nine months
Price: $22
Nose: Creamy pineapple chunks covered in vanilla - a touch of honeysuckle, minerality, and toastiness.
Taste: Toasted marshmallows with hints of kiwi, pineapple, green apple peel and vanilla bean. Extremely luscious mouth-feel in a wine that does a great job of balancing the fruit and acidity. The finish lasts for days on end - easily one of the better-structured chardonnay’s I’ve had in a long time.
W.E.P. Rating: 110%
2006 Viognier - Stillwater Creek:
Technical Data:
Barrel fermented in 100% French oak
Sur lie aged for nine months
Blend: 100% Viognier
Case Production 192 cases
Alcohol 13.5%
pH 3.51
Total acidity 0.59 grams/100 ml
Price: $22
Nose: Here we go - the nose on this wine is serious business - we’re talking HUGE amounts of pineapple, granny-smith apples, fresh carnations, a hint of flintiness and sour patch candy.
Taste: Take a fresh pineapple, top it with some kiwi, pear peel, some watermelon rine and shove it into your mouth - the explosive fruit of this wine cannot be underscored well enough in text. I get some hints of petrol, sandstone as well.
One of the best balances of fruit to acidity I’ve had in a white wine this side of Europe. I would hit this wine like the fist of an angry god - bring it on. For all you red wine snobs out there, you NEED to try this wine - this is the quintessential gateway white. This viognier is perhaps the best I’ve had at anytime, from any producer anywhere. It’s so well balanced that I’m a bit verklempt.
W.E.P. Rating: 120%
2005 Syrah - Sillwater Creek:
Technical Data:
Aged in a combination of new and one-year-old French oak barrels for 18 months
Gravity racked every 3 - 4 months
Blend: 98% Syrah and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon
Case Production: 1,909 cases
Alcohol: 14.1%
pH: 3.72
Total acidity: 0.53 g/100 ml
Price: $22
Nose: Gooseberries mixed with wild, freshly-cut game - some white and black pepper corns mixed with a nice blueberry jam and pie crust overtone round things out.
Taste: Bring on the stinky-socks covered in venison and peppercorns - then shove some fresh blueberries in your mouth and that’s what you have going on in this wine. Subtle hints of cocoa round out this quality syrah.
It has an insane amount of fruit that leaps onto your palate but it’s kept in check with a good sense of toasted leather notes. Excellent balance of fruit, oak and alcohol - this is a complete no-brainer wine for the money and one I’d highly recommend.
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