Oregon Chardonnay?

Aside from a handful of select Napa Cabs, I feel that Oregon Pinot Noir ‘can be’ one of the most amazing wines produced in the US (just my opinion – if your opinion differs from mine, then you are most likely wrong).  I would drink Oregon Pinot every night if I could reasonably afford to – or if the Willamette Valley Winery Association would just ship up a monthly allotment of wines for me to blog about.  As prices for Willamette Valley pinot noirs continue to climb, they are on the verge of losing a spot on my ‘wines to drink a few nights a week’ list and are moving to my ‘drink on special occasions’ list.   The adage ‘a rising tide lifts all ships’ is clearly obvious in the Willamette Valley.  Even producers of moderate quality pinot have benefited from this rising tide of prices and gotten away with high prices.

One of the by products of the success of pinot noir in the Willamette Valley is the shadow cast over other varietals, in particular Chardonnay.  Historically, the quality of most Chardonnay coming out of Oregon has been questionable at best, and some of it was down right awful.  Realizing the opportunity lost, a small group of winemakers formed an organization called ORCA (Oregon Chardonnay Alliance) that is dedicated to improving the quality of Willamette Valley Chardonnay.  

One of these winemakers dedicated to producing wines that express the full potential of the Chardonnay grape is Mike Hallock of Carabella Vineyards.  Carabella was started by Mike and Cara Hallock back in the 90’s after a 12 year search for a location that “combines the best criteria of top quality Oregon and French terriors.”  That location turned out to be a 49 acre plot located in the Chehalem Mountains AVA in Oregon’s Northern Willamette Valley. 

I had the chance to meet Mike last week while he was here in Virginia speaking at wine maker event at Bon Vivant in Smithfield, VA.  Mike has a background in geology and was trained as a winemaker in Colorado of all places (I believe Mike is the first Colorado trained winemaker that I’ve met). 

As part of the tasting, we sampled five of his Carabella wines including his 2006 Chardonnay made from the Dijon 76 clone.

Carabella 2006 Chardonnay Dijon 76 Clone

At $32/bottle, this one is on the high side of what I typically pay for a Chardonnay.  This price appears consistent with other high quality Willamette Valley Chardonnays in Carabella’s peer group.  14.7% alcohol.  This dark straw wine opens with a strong butterscotch aroma which continues in the mouth.  As a compliment to that initial butterscotch aroma, I found buttered toast, pear and hints of mineral on the nose.  Smooth mouth feel with more butterscotch flavors along with vanilla and some citrus.  Clean finish with more pear.  We paired this with grilled fish tacos that worked very well together.

Although Carabella doesn’t have a tasting room to visit if you are in the Willamette Valley area, their wines are available for online ordering at their site:  http://www.carabellawine.com/home.html. 

Upcoming Travel Note:  I will be visiting Willamette Valley in August and am looking for recommendations on wineries to visit.  To date, I have plans to visit a handful of wineries including Sokol Blosser, De Ponte and a few others.  I would like to visit Amity, Adelsheim and Bergstrom – if any of you my fellow wine bloggers/readers have contacts at any of these Oregon wineries, please let me know.  I would like to make personal contact prior to my trip.

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Wine Book Club: Passion on the Vine

May marks the 10th month of the virtual Wine Book Club.  The subject of this month’s WBC is Passion on the Vine – A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Family in the Heart of Italy written by Sergio Espisito.  In addition to penning a fantastic memoir of his Italian wine journey, Espisito is also Founder of Italian Wine Merchants. 

I found Sergio’s life, as outlined in the book, fascinating and enviable.  In my initial quick pass through the book, I got the impression, given all of his experiences, that this was the memoir of a man nearing the sunset of his life.  On a more thorough look, I was shocked to learn that Esposito is only in his early 40’s (if my math is correct). 

As with many memoirs, Espisito’s began with his earliest memories and those family members who had a significant impact on the person he is today.  One of the early chapters chronicles his move from ‘home’ in Naples, Italy to Albany, NY at the age of six.  The chapter includes descriptions of the culture shock he and his family experienced after the relocation to the US – bland foods and challenges of being the ‘different’ kid in school. 

Although there is nothing overly unique about Espisito’s early years, it’s clear how those years set the stage for the successful entrepreneur he is today.  I was struck by how conscious he was at an early age – he seemed to fear being part of the routine and rut of daily life as many of the strangers that he noticed.  To avoid ending up “meting out days as though I [he] were lobotomized,” Espisito decided to consciously create his life by exercising his senses constantly by focusing on the feel, touch, smell and taste of food and the things around him.  (more of us should ‘wake up’)    

As the book progresses, each chapter provides an intriguing and sometimes comical portrait of the various characters Sergio has met throughout his time in Italy.  I appreciate the fact that Passion on the Vine provides detailed insight in to the story and people behind the wines he imports.

I noticed several parallels with a previous Wine Book Club selection, Kermit Lynch’s Adventures on the Wine Route, who is also an author, wine shop owner and importer.  In particular, they both attempt to dispel the myth that the life of an importer is all glamour – traveling the world, tasting countless wines each day, dining at the finest restaurants, and hobnobbing with remarkable wine makers.  I’m sure the life of an importer isn’t sun and roses all the time, but I must admit that I definitely envy these guys, especially Espisito who spends several months each year in Italy.

My take aways…

• Reminded of the old proverb of respecting your elders, especially the ones you have respect for (p. 258).  Thanks for the reminder.
• Drink more Italian wine!
• The life of an importer can be pretty damn good!

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The Cheese Toast Prodigy and Wine Home Parties

I’ve had the good fortune of not having to travel for the last two weeks which means a lot of grilling and dinners out on the deck.   Here in Southern, VA we grill just about anything… fish, yard birds, Twinkies, pizzas, game animals my father-in-law shot and my favorite… cheese toast.

Grilled cheese toast and wine on the deck is a staple at our house during the warm weather months.  Couple my love of cheese toast with an addiction to reading wine blogs to see what others are drinking and writing about, I learned some time ago that Fredric Koeppel at Bigger Than Your Head also appears to be a fan of cheese toast.

One example of the great content Fredric provides at Bigger Than Your Head are various recipes, a few of which are for cheese toast.  Last week he posted his Cheese Toast Extreme Makeover recipe, and last night I attempted to duplicate Fredric’s version of extreme cheese toast that includes olive tapenade, fresh arugula, tomatoes, three types of cheese and something called Turkish Urfa pepper (no one at Fresh Market had ever heard of the stuff so I went with plain black pepper).  Other than using regular American cracked black pepper, the only other deviation from the recipe was using our charcoal grill for the toasting vice an oven broiler.

Amazing – even with my limited cooking skills – made a perfect pre-dinner snack on the deck on a nice evening. 

I paired the toast with a Zin we’ve had sitting around for a while that I picked up at a wine home sales party.  Some time ago, one of my wife’s friends had a get together at her house that turned out to be a Traveling Vineyards wine home sales party (similar to a Mary Kay or Pampered Chef type of thing).  We tasted a handful of wines at the party that night, none of which threw my hair back, but I bought this particular bottle because I wasn’t too familiar with wines from Amador County. 

Black Shadow 2005 Clockspring Vineyard Zinfandel

This appears to be a private labeling for the Traveling Vineyard Company, made from Clockspring Vineyard fruit which is an organic vineyard located in Amador County.  For the geographically challenged, Amador County is situated in the heart of California’s Sierra Foothills, 45 minutes east of Sacramento and two hours east of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Overall, the cheese toast was the star of the evening.  This wine was a simple, straight-forward effort for ~$15.  A reasonable 13.8% alcohol.  Juicy.  The nose was dominated by grape candy aromas – very similar to a grape fruit roll up or grape fruit gushers (which are very tasting) – along with raspberry and cherry on the nose.   Light tannins.  In the mouth I got that same juicy grape candy flavor along with spice and pepper.

A big ‘ol hat tip to Fredric Koeppel for the Extreme Cheese Toast recipe, and a regular hat tip to my wife for slicing the tomatoes ‘paper thin’ as prescribed by Fredric’s recipe.  If you haven’t checked out Bigger Than Your Head – be sure to book mark the site.  Fredric provides great content and is one of the ‘real’ writers out here in the blogosphere.

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The Cradle of French Rose

I tried to come up with more clever heading, something like a ‘Rose by any other name…’ but just not that creative.  Oh well… 

The Cradle of French Rose is of course Tavel – the small town that lies just to the northeast of Avignon on the right bank of the Rhone.   Tavel’s sole designation is for Rose wines which are made from a blend of red and white grapes –  Grenache, Cinsault (15% minimum), Syrah, Mourvedre, Clairette, Bourboulenc, Picpoul, Carignan (10% maximum), Calitor (this is a new one to me).  And, no varietal may exceed 60%.  Tavel received A.O.C. confirmation in 1936.

Chateau de Segries 2008 Tavel –  A blend of 50% Grenache, 30% Cinsault, 15% Clairette and 5% Syrah.  Owned and operated by the Henri de Lanzac family since 1994.  I believe this Tavel was about $17/bottle at FineWine in Gaithersburg, MD.  Dark strawberry color with a beautiful nose of ripe strawberries, raspberries, flint and floral aromas.  The floral aroma was a common flower, but I really don’t know my flowers and couldn’t place the smell.  Lighter than expected mouth feel with tastes of more red fruit, mineral and a distinctive lime finish.

This wine was on the high-end of what I like to pay for a Rose, but definitely tasty and paired well with the weather and spicy pepperoni pizza from CPK across from the hotel.

Now that summer is upon us, the timing is ideal for Rose… and in particular a Tavel which are food friendly and make perfect sipping wines for warm nights on the deck.

 

UPDATE – John over at Anything Wine also reviewed this one as well:   http://anythingwine.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/tuesday-quick-sip-%e2%80%93-2008-chateau-de-segries-tavel-rose/

A great buy for summer.

 

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