Bandol, Berry, and Boxwood

As a proud Global Warming skeptic, I am reluctant to believe 99.9999% of the hyperbole spewed by the “environmentalist” crowd, however, I will admit that my skepticism has softened in the last few years as I’ve experienced first hand how the weather patterns here in Southeastern, VA have changed markedly.

Although we experienced record snowfall this winter, the heat of summer moved on us quickly, sneaking past spring.  Save for a few days in the late 60’s, spring is MIA.

What does all this have to do with wine?  Not much – other than the fact that weather tends to affect my personal wine consumption habits. The warmer spring weather is a beacon to begin opening up the Rosé.

In addition to having a Gamay fetish, I am a Rosé feign.  I love the stuff, and consume generous amounts during the summer months.  I’ve found two winners so far in this year’s Rosé season:

• Domaine Tempier 2008 Bandol Rosé
• Boxwood 2009 Rosé

I tried the Domaine Tempier 2008 Bandol Rosé at the Chesapeake Bay Wine Classic. If I had to describe this light salmon-pink wine in one word it would be ‘pretty.’  It’s the Halle Berry of wine – no matter what movie role she plays, no matter what she wears, no matter what her hair looks like – she’s just damn pretty, no matter what.  So is this wine.

The Domaine, located in the heart of Bandol, has been in the Tempier family since 1834.  The Rose is a blend of Mourvèdre, Grenache, Cinsault, and Carignan – fermented in steel after cold soaking, then matured in large vats for 6 – 8 months before bottling.  Light salmon pink with orange hues in the glass, this wine showed an expressive nose of strawberry, raspberry, watermelon candy, orange peel, followed by more strawberry, watermelon, peach, mineral, and copper flavors in the mouth.  The strawberry/watermelon component carried through to a long finish.  Very crisp, clean, with excellent acidity.  About $35/bottle retail.  Imported by Kermit Lynch for over 30 years. Damn good!  Big ups to Bill Averett from Roanoke Valley Wine Company for pouring this beauty during the event.

If you haven’t tried the Rosé from Domaine Tempier, use this summer as your reason to do so – July 4^th would be a great occasion for such a wine.

On to my second favorite Rosé of the season so far – from right here in the Commonwealth – the Boxwood 2009 Rosé. I happened across this wine at the Drink Local Wine Conference live twitter taste event, and am hooked.

Boxwood Winery is located in scenic Middleburg, VA and also has three satellite tasting rooms located in Middleburg, Chevy Chase, MD, and at the Reston Town Center in Reston, VA.  Boxwood Winery is owned by John Kent Cooke, son of the late Jack Kent Cooke, former owner of the Washington Redskins.  Boxwood’s consulting winemaker is internationally renowned French vigneron Stephane Derenoncourt.

Boxwood 2009 Rose – This steely wine is light pink with lively aromas of peach and strawberry with mineral and light fruit on the palate.  At $12/bottle, the Boxwood Rosé is absolutely one of  ‘the’ best value wines in Virginia – perhaps highest QPR wine in the state.  This is a perfect wine for sipping on a summer afternoon when only a crisp, refreshing wine will do.

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Quivira Vineyard Walk

One of the highlights of the Wine Bloggers Conference was the vineyard hike on Sunday afternoon.  Of the three vineyard hikes available, I selected the hike at Quivira Vineyards.  Our hike was organized by Zephyr Adventures, and guided by Nancy, Quivira’s General Manager.

For those with ADD, or, for those who just don’t have the desire or capacity to read long, rambling articles, I provide the summary below for your scanning pleasure:

Quivira Winery and Vineyards – their team members, mission, stewardship of the land, and their wines absolutely rock!  The take away – visit Quivira the next time you’re in the Dry Creek Valley area.

On to the details…   I arrived at Quivira about 1:30pm on Sunday afternoon – sunny, 90-degree day.  My first impression of the Quivira was “wow” – the tasting room/winery was surrounded by immaculately kept grounds accentuated by colorful (and ‘alive’) wildflowers and vegetation.

Quivira gets its name from an old crazy European belief – way back yonder in the 1700 and 1800’s, the area we now call Sonoma once appeared on European maps as a mythical kingdom called ‘Quivira’ whose streets were believed to be paved with gold.  Now, that gold is in the form of grape vines that produce grapes used in some of the finest wines in the world.

Quivira was founded in 1981 and received Demeter Biodynamic Certification in 2005.  Located in the Dry Creek Valley AVA, Quivira has 93 acres under vine spread across four different vineyards.  Included in these 93 acres are Zinfandel, Sauvignon-Blanc, Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Montepulciano, and obscure varietals like Counoise.  These 93 acres produce about 13,000 cases of Quivira wine annually.

The hike began with a walk through their Biodynamic garden which broke ground in Spring 2008, followed by a visit to one of three Italian bee hives on the property, a quick stop by their chicken coop, followed by a quick walk-by the weed abatement team – sheep.  The walk also included a stroll around the vineyards and along Wine Creek.  In addition to being good stewards of their land by practicing organic and Biodynamic viticulture, Quivira has also made a positive environmental impact by restoring Wine Creek that runs through the property.  This creek is home to aquatic life and vegetation, including spawning ground for wild trout. 

The vineyard walk culminated with a tasting of seven Quivira wines, all of which I liked (a rarity for me).  A few of the notables included:

Our tasting began with Quivira’s refreshing Fig Tree Vineyard 2008 Sauvignon Blanc.  This was a perfect starter after a hot hike.  The Sauvignon Blanc grapes used to produce this wine are from Quivira’s Biodynamic Fig Tree Vineyard – named for a 130-year old Black Mission fig tree on the property.   13.9% alcohol.  Crisp and lively wine with a nose of lemon and lime spritz that led to flavors of pink grapefruit.  $18/bottle. Fermented with native yeasts.

We then moved on to one of the nerdier wines I’ve had in a while – the Quivira Mourvedre Viognier 2008 Rose.  92% Mourvedre and 8% Viognier.  12% alcohol.  Only 50 cases made of this little gem.  Interesting nose of fresh rose petal, cherry and spice.  I got more cherry flavors in the mouth along with a raisin component.  Excellent. $28/bottle.  Fermented with native yeasts.

One of the highlights of our tasting for me was the Dry Creek Valley 2006 Zinfandel.  I believe they affectionately refer to this wine as Ruby Zin, named for one of the pigs that reside on the Quivira property.  A blend of 90% Zinfandel, 8% Petit Sirah and 2% Carignane.   Dark purple color.  On the nose I found ripe plum, cherry, mulberry, and a light earthy component.  In the mouth, flavors of pepper and dark berries matched the tannins well.  $20/bottle.  Fermented with native yeasts.

Overall, Quivira wines provide an excellent representation of their ‘place’ in Dry Creek Valley that can only be truly achieved via organic/Biodynamic viticulture coupled with low/non-intervention in the cellar and use of native yeasts for fermentation.

 

 

Quivira Vineyard

 

One of 120 raised beds in the Quivira Biodynamic garden.

One of 3 italian bee hives on the Quivira property.

Wine Creek

 

Weed Abatement

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Orlando Rose Taste-Off

It’s hard to believe that the Wine Bloggers Conference is just a few days away.   Since we only had a few days in Napa during our last trip in February, my wife and I are making a vacation out of this trip and staying a week after the conference to veg out, drink lots of wine, eat lots of fattening food and do little else.  The downside of taking a 10 day vacation is the glut of work to do before leaving.  Since my job seems to be getting in the way of my extracurricular activities, I am quite behind on posts – I’ve had a lot of wine and taken lots of low quality pictures, but just can’t seem to get around to actually churning out my typical award wining wine prose.  

During a quick weekend getaway with the in-laws in Orlando a few weeks ago, I stopped by the Orlando Total Wine to grab these three bottles of Rose for a taste off.  To pair with the sweltering Orlando summer heat and La Vie En Rose, I selected three Roses from different parts of the world – Tavel, Napa, and South Africa.

Elizabeth Rose 2008 Rose   $17.99.  From Napa.  Light red color, although it looks much darker due to my amateur photography skills and my POS camera.  A blend of 93% Syrah and 7% Zinfandel.  Alcohol 13%.   A great nose of sweet watermelon candy, raspberry, and light cherry aromas.  In the mouth, I got pronounced flavors of watermelon, strawberry, lime zest with a lengthy red fruit finish.  Would have been great with spicy Thai take out.

Les Vignes des Precheurs 2008 Tavel  $16.99. From Tavel in southern Rhone.  Typical watermelon and strawberry nose – about the same in the mouth.  Expected more of the mineral notes that I’ve come to expect from Tavel Roses. 

Mulderbosch 2008 Rose   $12.99.  From Stellenbosch, South Africa.  Made from Cabernet Sauvignon.  Nose of cherry and tart citrus that led to flavors of sour cherry.  One aspect of this wine that I enjoyed was the crispness in the mouth.  My least favorite of the trio.

The favorite of the night was the Elizabeth Rose Rose.  I had higher expectations for the Les Vignes des Precheurs.  The Mulderbosch finished a very distant third, and bordered on blech!

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Just Plain Ol Good

Ever have one of those wines that is simple yet fantastic?  Simple in a good way – approachable, refreshing, straight forward, and economical.  These simple yet good wines are make ideal house wines, perfect for sipping when you just want to veg out, watch mindless TV and not think.

I believe I found my Summer house wine this weekend…  the Domaine Sorin 2008 Terra Amata Rose.   I picked this up at Let’s Talk Wine for $11, but you may be able to get it from just under 10 bucks if you find it at one of the big wine stores.

Other than saying this one is good I don’t want to write too much about it for fear of over complicating this gem.

Domaine Sorin 2008 Rose Terra Amata  -  Easy drinking.  Nice pink color.  A blend of Grenache 40%, Cinsault 15%, Syrah 10%, Mourvèdre 15%, Carignan 10%, Rolle 5%, Orgi 5%.  Refreshing nose of lime spritz (think 7-Up soda), orange zest, pink grapefruit and light strawberry aromas that led to flavors of watermelon jolly rancher candy, lake bed stone and more lime in the mouth.  Crisp acidity. 

A note about the Rolle and Orgi grapes used in this blend.  In France, mostly in the Côtes de Provence and in the Languedoc region, this white varietal goes by the name Rolle.  In other parts of the world, namely Northern Italy, this grape goes by its more common name, Vermentino.  The Orgi grape appears very obscure as I was unable to find anything other than lots of sites with information about the other ‘orgy’ word.  If you happen to know of a site with information on the Orgi grape, please drop me an email or comment here.

I checked Wine-Searcher.com and the Domaine Sorin Rose appears to have fairly wide distribution throughout the US.  Check in your area, and pick up a bottle.  It’s worth the search.  I would definitely like to hear feedback on this wine if you happen to try a bottle.

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