Archive for the ‘Wine Room’ Category
another reason to hate the PLCB
t says: There are many reasons why people dislike or even detest the PLCB. Today, I will share my latest grievance with them. Having been on the email list for The Wine School, I received their March newsletter containing reviews of some bottles that can be found in PA Wine and Spirits Shoppes. One particular wine stood out (I hope they don’t mind that I reproduce it here):
2009 Falesco Tellus (Umbria, Italy, $13.99 at PLCB). per The Wine School: “Luxurious, like a velvet cushion of dark sweet fruit. The only fault is its perfection –round, sexy, slick perfection– which takes away some of the pleasure of drinking a Umbrian wine.”
And trust me – these guys at The Wine School have no incentive to promote PA wine sales – they just really like wine! Furthermore, the Wine Advocate had a glowing review as well (check the PLCB link above). So I logged onto the PLCB website, searched for the bottle, and found that a some-what local store in center city. So I walked on down to 12th and Chestnut, skipping along, ever-so-excited by my impending purchase. I mean, come on: “round, sexy, slick perfection” – who could resist?.
I arrived and couldn’t find the bottle on my own. No big deal – they only had 2 bottles left, so it was going to be hard. I approached a person stocking shelves and asked them for help. They had no idea what I was talking about, which was to be expected, so they looked it up on the slower-than-molasses computer. “We’re supposed to have 2 of these.” I was not surprised. “You couldn’t find ’em?” No – of course I found ’em – I was just testing him because I have nothing better to do on a Wednesday. Duh! But I was nice and politely responded, “nah – I’ll check the Italian section again.” He then went back into the storeroom to “ask the wine guy”. A few minutes passed. He came out and said, “we don’t got ’em”. None? “Nope.” And then he walked away. The mysterious “wine guy” didn’t come out and say anything. No “oops”. No “let me help you find something else”. Nothing.
Thanks PLCB. I love you, too.
NOT.
PS I just went to the PLCB on 5th street and they had 7 or so bottles – from which I selected two. I hope they’re not compromised! (The corks seem to be riding a little high.) If so, it’d be anotherreason I’d hate the PLCB …
if wine were a cocktail …
t says: We invited over dz and smn a night or so ago for some take-out and wine (and dessert … don’t forget dessert*). With pizza from Gusto’s, I went into my “cellar” and pulled out a pinot noir. Now, I had never had this particular Pinot, so I was gambling a bit, because when it comes to a new Pinot, I never know what I’m going to get. As soon as I hear “Pinot noir” (assuming I’m talking about red still wine), the two flavors that come to mind are red cherries and earth. This is interesting because depending on the absolute intensities of cherry and earth as well as the cherry:earth ratio, different pinot noirs can be very different from each other. You can get some over-extracted, over-the-top, fruit-bomb pinot noirs that coat your mouth and and scream “cherry” (or even darker fruits) from the top of its lungs, or you can get an elegant symphony of fruit and leather and earth and wood that moves you to tears. To paraphrase that dude from the movie Sideways: “when it’s great, Pinot noir produces the most complex, hedonistic, and remarkably thrilling wine in the world.” I assure you that the wine we had was not such a wine, but of course, it’s pretty unreasonable to have such expectations for under $20 … and with some take-out pizza.
2009 calera pinot noir
2009 Calera Pinot Noir (USA, CA, Central Coast; $24.99 at PLCB, but <$20 everywhere else). The first thing I noticed about this particular bottle was that this was unlike any closure than I had ever encountered. Here’s a closeup:
what’s the deal with the glass stopper?
That’s right – it’s not real cork, it’s not synthetic cork, it’s glass! How interesting! Maybe I need to drink more wine or something, because this is the first time I’ve seen it. g did the honors and popped it with ease. Wow! No corkscrew necessary! While I’m sure this will affect/limit any attempt to “age” the wine over time (or am I?), it’s definitely darn spiffy. Plus, if there’s any left, you just pop it back into place and it’s [relatively] sealed once again.
The wine itself was intriguing because it didn’t quite remind me of pinot noir. I’ll let g explain:
g says: I smelled “jazzy strawberries”. It wasn’t just plain old strawberry – there was something else there – a lot like mint. When I smelled it, it made me feel like I really wanted to drink it, if that makes any sense. It tasted just like it smelled, with strawberries, other red fruit, and a strong minty flavor (the fresh-cut herb, not like peppermint or spearmint). It also felt like it had a little bit of carbonation on my tongue. I guess it was kind of like a cocktail! If t finds more at under $20/bottle, I think he should get some.
t says: I completely agree with the above assessment. As a matter of fact, we both mentioned red fruits (strawberry in particular) and mint independently and when I checked the Wine Advocate tasting note, I was not surprised to see that the wine critic found those two kinds of flavors as well. The wine critic then mentions “polish” and “elegance”, but I’m not so sure I’d go there. It does have this moderate-length finish where you continue to taste the pitter-patter of berry-mint flavor well after you swallow which is very pleasant, but it’s definitely not-so-much “elegant” as it is “flirtacious”. To be truly “elegant”, I’d expect something else to come into play to balance the cocktail-ness (or maybe “cocktaility”?) of the wine. There was some mouth-watering acid (which probably made it feel a little fizzy), but not a single bit of bitter tannin or funk/earth anywhere on the palate. I did get some earth on the nose, but that’s about it.
Impression and Plan: The Calera is an easy-going wine with flavors of mass-appeal (?who doesn’t like strawberry and mint?). Overall, g quite liked it and she expects that kp will like it, too – we’ll see. I feel that if it were $4 cheaper, I’d consider buying a bottle and having it on hand for emergency party situations. g feels differently, and would pay up to $20. I guess I just like something a little darker and a little more brooding.
*Noteworthy aside: smn made this super-awesome lemon pound cake thingee from Ina Garten. Holy crap it was amazing. Between the lemon pound cake and the chocolate cake balls, she’s a pretty darn talented baker. She was kind enough to let us have the remaining slice or two. I will eat them when g’s not looking …
big boy showdown
t says: Last time, we talked about the good times and good food had at Marigold Kitchen. But, as you might have noticed, after all that hype in the beginning of the post, we didn’t have time to discuss the wine! Just a reminder: the setup was that a and I each brought a bottle of wine unknown by the other. After a little discussion and thought, we decided to make it a Cabernet Sauvignon showdown … a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon showdown …
I decided to pick up a spendy bottle of Cab from the PLCB; we needed a good splurge after the holidays. Plus, I just found out that I could return my medical books to amazon.com for way higher than anyone else would buy them from me (Score!). I searched high and low for what I should bring (our home cellar doesn’t have many spendy options that are “ready” yet). And then I found it. I found a bottle that would have some special meaning as well as fall within our budget (i.e. less than the $$ I got from the books I sold). Basically, I was almost obligated to try it. I should note that I technically didn’t buy the wine from a state-run “store”, rather, the state-run website: finewineandgoodspirits.com. When you search for a wine, you can click the tab that says “special order” or something like that and see what’s lying around in the state’s warehouses (which I’ve read are kept at 65 degrees … however … with how tight moneys are nowadays in the state/nation/world, I seriously doubt anyone’s checking the thermostat regularly). So yes, it was a risk. With a vintage bottle of wine like the one I got, the risk is that it may have been improperly stored for several years and the consumer (little ‘ol me) would never know until I pop the cork. That said, I do my best to minimize risk. The most common problem with these warehouse-stored bottles (if there is a problem), is dried out corks (leading to air creeping down the sides of the cork and oxidizing the wine). Consequently, as soon as I get home, I cut the foil off the top and check the cork. And, if there’s the slightest bit of suspicious creepage of wine up the side of the cork (or less-than-perfect ullage or a cork that protrudes out the top some), I take advantage of the awesome PLCB return policy (i.e. no questions asked). As previously blogged, I have run into a cooked wine, and I imagine if I ever run into a corked or oxidized wine from the PLCB, I’ll be returning it for sure.
Sooooo … I bought the wine, prepared it (i.e. decanted it), and brought it to the restaurant, ready to go toe-to-toe with a’s selection. The waiter brought out the wines with the appetizers (i.e. after four or so amuses). We tasted, analyzed, pontificated, and, right before entrees came out, revealed the wines’ identities. This was followed by more tasting, analysis, and pontification. In short – it was a lot of fun and something we’ll definitely do again (except a more fiscally responsible next time … or g will have my head …).
Now for 1/2 of the big reveal:
t's pick: 2002 dominus estate
2002 Dominus Estate (USA, CA, Napa, ?Yountville?; $97.19 at PLCB) I had seen identical bottles going for $150 in NJ so I just had to give this one a whirl when I found it for under $100 at the state store. Furthermore, Dominus holds a special place in g’s and my hearts, as a 1999 Dominus was the wine at our rehearsal dinner (we still have the empty magnum and cork) … and 1999 was a special year because that’s when we started dating <insert obligatory “aww” here>.
By the time we had gotten around to tasting, our ’02 had been decanted three times (once into the decanter, once back into the bottle, and once into the restaurant’s decanter) and allowed to sit for a total of 2.5 hours. Because he’s tasted far more wines than I, I’ll let our wine guy take over:
a says: To start, thank you t for bringing out the big guns. At first, on the nose, I found this a little underwhelming and mainly dominated by funky (but not FRENCH-funky) earth. On the palate, it was lighter than I would have expected for what I knew at the time (big cab from Napa) with much less fruit. Plain and simple, this wine was dusty with lots of dirt and leather. The grip was excellent and the tannins quite smooth, however, the aftertaste ended abruptly. As this wine decanted, it evolved with the meal and became more enjoyable and less dominated by library/earthy flavors; the fruit woke-up on the nose and palate along with some nice chocolate notes. When I learned of the bottle’s origin, I was genuinely surprised… by the label outside and restraint inside. Having never had Dominus, this was not what I would have expected. This drank more like a 3rd growth than a cult napa cab. It was definitely an enjoyable bottle, especially as it opened up, but that being said, was it worth the coin? I can’t say it was. And unless we popped this guy during a dumb phase, I have a hard time believing the drinking window purported by Parker. I would say this is ready now and quite possibly on the downhill.
[on to the next wine:]
a's pick: 2004 Chappellet Signature Cabernet Sauvignon
2004 Chappellet “Signature Cabernet Sauvignon” (USA, CA, Napa; $40 in NJ some time ago) This knocked my socks off. This was a good year from Napa Valley but I didn’t expect such a round wine from a lesser known producer at this price point. At the start, beautiful color with a lively nose of dark fruit and typical green vegetal notes. On the palate, I found blueberry jam, mocha, and some nice heat. This evolved to get a little more earthy [we mentioned baby-poop at one point] on the nose and peppery in the mouth, while beautifully lingering on the tongue. The heat did turn up during the final sips which could have been caused by warmish wine or just serious aeration for the last drops. Baller. (I have another bottle that I’ll give a little more time in the cellar.)
t says: I agree with a here. I think my unrefined palate may have gotten the best of me, as I, too, preferred the mouthfeel and plushness of the Chappellet. With a slightly longer finish, a little less heat, and a bit smoother tannin, I would have be scouring the net right now to find every last bottle I could. On the other hand, what the Dominus really needed was some sex appeal. It had some funk, it had structure, and it had silkiest tannins I’ve had in a while, but it was missing the center-stage fruit. It was like a Britney Spears music video without Britney (n.b. the Britney circa late-90’s, not the current Britney). Compared to the ’99 we had back in the day, this ’02 had less fruit, less acid, and smoother tannins. Parker-points-be-damned, the ’02 needed some oomph! Nevertheless, I now look forward to future bottles of Dominus, as Christian Moueix’s later vintages are known to be a bit showier. Dominus vertical in 2019? Who’s game?
St. Henri disgusts me
t says: I was super-pumped after I saw one of these Chairman’s Selection wines: 2005 St. Henri Shiraz half-bottle. That’s a screaming deal! I stopped by the store on 19th and Chestnut, picked up a bottle, and immediately started planning how it was I was going to drink it.
After I got home, I then noticed something that took me by surprise:
2005 St. Henri ... well ... not really ...
As you can barely see in the above picture, this was a 2004 St. Henri … NOT a 2005. That’s an entirely different year. And, through some quick googling, I found that it was quite an inferior one. Darnit! Nevertheless, I pressed on and opened it up a week later for a tasting with g’s dad.
2004 Penfolds “St. Henri Shiraz″ (half-bottle; Australia; $14.99 at PLCB). Upon opening the bottle (the cork was in great shape!), I was greeted with a familiar smell, but I couldn’t quite place it. It was something vivid and in-your-face, but my mind was blocking. So I poured it into a decanter. As I swirled, I remembered: raisins. It smelled of raisins. Kind of like a port … uuhhh-ooohhhh. I tasted it, and it tasted like – surprise – raisins! Double-darnit! That’s a cooked wine if I ever tasted one. Basically, the bottle was kept at a very warm temperature for far too long a time. The result of this is a very obvious raisin taste that takes over everything. It’d be one thing if it then proceeds to taste good … trust me, this did not, as you can see from the title of this post. It was bad news, man. Bad news. I was nonplussed as some might say. So I poured the wine from the decanter back into the bottle, recorked it, and walked over to 19th and Chestnut with my receipt in hand. I returned that mo’-fo’. Got my money back, fo’ shizzle.
Other bottles of St. Henri in the state may not be cooked, but I wasn’t risking another bottle from that store. Actually, I’d probably just not bother with the 2004 at all – there’s a lot of great Australian Shiraz to be had at under $30/bottle (remember, this one was $15 for a half-bottle). If I happen to find a real 2005 St. Henri, I’d jump on it in a heartbeat. And – even if it was improperly stored like the above one, I have no qualms about returning it. They asked me no questions whatsoever. That’s perhaps the best thing about PA state stores: no one there knows a single thing about wine so they have to just take your word for it. You could probably just “not like the way it tastes” and get away with returning it.
wine that saves lives
t says: What do you look for in a “nice” bottle of wine. A pretty nose? Complex flavors? A long finish? Yes to all of those! How about a wine that saves lives? That’d be like icing on the cake …
In contrast to our last post about Dreaming Tree, it’s time to focus on some “spendier” wines: Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Wines from this region are famous, pricey, and, unfortunately, not always tasty. Those under-$20 bottles are very hit-or-miss (with the hit:miss ratio being very low). Meanwhile, you start getting to the $35+ and now things start to improve rapidly … but there’s still a wide range of hitting and missing. Damn. In a world of limited income, there’s just not enough green to waste on “ok” wine, much less bad wine. Well here’s a deal that was introduced to us at The Wine School at the “Luxury Wines of Napa” class we all went to:
2006 Ehlers Estate “1886” (USA, CA, Napa, St. Helena; $49.99 at PLCB) First off, note the sexy bottle. This is one of the few times when you’re allowed to judge the book by its cover. It’s pretty! Also note the heart-shape hiding in the E (n.b. it’s not an anatomically correct heart). So what gives? Well, you see, Ehlers Estate began with Jean Leducq, a philanthropist who started the Leducq Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to funding international cardiovascular research. As a future cardiologist, I approve of this link between drinking wine and increasing cardiovascular health (albeit indirectly) because it turns out that that whole “a glass of red wine a day is good for the heart” might not actually be true. That’s a shame … oh well … Ehlers to the rescue!
a’s parents visited Ehler’s Estate a few years back and had a wonderful time. (Check the vineyard out here.) The tasting was well worth the $25 which can usually be circumvented with schmoozing or a wine purchase. Their “lower” Cabernet, if you can find it, is also quite good – a Merlot-lover’s Cab thanks to the luscious fruit and soft tannins.
Next, note the original price and the PLCB price:
it's like a 50% off sale!
It’s no lie – this bottle really did sell at $95 at one time. Nowadays, the cheapest I’ve seen it for is about $87 … except in PA where it’s being blown out at $50. Must mean it sucks, right? WRONG. It does not suck – quite the opposite! In the glass it’s super-dark and opaque. On the nose, it’s dark berry-ful. On the palate, you get dark fruit meets cola meets a hint of raspberry (that little bit of sour). a gets a little more cherry and chocolate on his palate. I didn’t get the classic “green bell pepper” of Cabernet Sauvignon, but maybe I’m just not keen enough. The mouthfeel is reasonably plush, but there’s still some mouth-watering acid and integrated bitterness (tannins) there, giving structure. The finish lingers for a while – 30 seconds or so. Keep in mind that this wine should ideally be decanted for a bit before drinking so that it’s allowed to open up and show off its flavors and soften some of its tannins.
So why the “deal” of $50? I suspect it’s because Wine Spectator scored it 87/100. Never mind the 94 points that you’ll see on the PLCB’s website from the Connoisseurs’ Guide or the 92 it currently has on Cellartracker, that 87 is a scathing published score for a Napa Cab and usually spells doom for a particular vintage’s bottling … which is probably how PA ended up with so much of it (PA likes buying the excess at a “good deal”). So I guess then the real question remains: is it worth the price? Well, I’d say that for the $100 original price it is not – when I taste a $100 wine (not that this happens very often – I can count them on one hand), I expect to be moved – to be brought to silent pause in order to fully appreciate the evolution of flavors throughout the finish. This wine is delicious, but not quite “moving”. Is it worth $50? I’d say so. It stands above all those standard under-$20 bottles that I normally pull out on weekend dinners. So it’s “special”. In our book, it deserves a special occasion – something like Valentine’s day. It deserves to be decanted and served with nice stemware. It deserves the respect of the $50 you spend on it. And, even if it turns out you don’t “love” it, you can at least be happy that your dollars might have gone to support medical research. And those who are environmentally-conscious will be happy to know it’s 100% organic and biodynamically farmed.
Buyer beware, however, as whatever the state has is whatever the state has (and they’ll likely never get another shipment), so find a way to get a bottle either at your local PLCB (the item code and store locator in the above PLCB page will help – search “Philadelphia” in the city field as your only criteria – searching by zip codes sucks) before it’s gone. Even without a real “cellar” to store it, keep it on its side in a cool, dark place (i.e. not in the kitchen) and drink it sometime over the next year or two. Those with wine cellars can keep it for longer but it’ll be hard to wait …
Oh, and one last thing … before you plunk down the credit card (or cash if you’re bawler) at the Wine and Spirits Shoppe, look at the cork (you can do this because there’s no foil on these bottles). Ensure that the cork is not protruding out beyond the rim of the bottle. ALSO, turn the bottle on its side and then rotate it about its long axis, and look at the cork to ensure that no purple of the wine is encroaching beyond a centimeter or so up the cork. If the purple color makes it all the way to the top of the cork, put the bottle down and walk away – it’s likely a compromised bottle. I would say go and tell a worker there about it, but that might be an exercise in futility (e.g. when I spotted one such compromised Ehlers bottle this past weekend at a PLCB store and told someone, they just took the bottle from me and put it behind the counter without asking for any clarification or even looking at the bottle – I sense that after I left she just put it back on the shelf). So … y’all be careful out there …
Dave Matthews + Wine = ?
t says: It happens all too often. You need to pick up a bottle of wine to have with dinner with friends and it has to be fast. You run into a PA “Wine and Spirits Shoppe” (the -pe to the end of “Shop” means it’s classy, right?) and now you’re faced with an odd selection of wines from all over. What do you do? The thing with the PLCB is that their supply is very erratic, so we’re starting this little sliver of blog to highlight (or bash) wines from the PLCB stores. It should be noted that we, ourselves, aren’t always going to have procured the bottles from PLCB stores, ourselves (it may be a buck or two cheaper in NJ or DE), but just so long as it can be found in Philly or shipped to a Philly PLCB, we’re going to include it in the “PLCB-approved” portion of our wine reviews.
Having been a high school student in the 90’s, I was a huge fan of the Dave Matthews Band – it’s one of the few concerts I’d attend routinely (actually – in retrospect – it’s one of the few concerts I’d attend, period). I’m pretty sure that “Before These Crowded Streets” was my most-played CD of that decade – I just loved the music. Nowadays, Dave’s a little different and has an all-new style. Some say he sold out big time. Others blame the unfortunate loss of LeRoi Moore to the band’s new sound and feel. In any case, there will always be a special place in my heart for Crush, Halloween, Watchtower, Spoon, Dreaming Tree, Little Thing, etc.
One of the new Dave ventures is wine. Check it:
2009 The Dreaming Tree “Crush” (USA, CA, North Coast; $16.99 at PLCB) Gifted to me by lc for Christmas, I was happy to give the bottle a try. I liked Dave and I like wine, so why not? Upon reading the label, it was clear that whoever is producing this wine for Dave is basically just blending together a mish-mash of all kinds of grapes from all over California. This made me very suspicious. I expected it to flop. I poured myself a glass and was greeted by the sweet smell of strawberry preserves. Mmmmm. Upon first taste, I got hit in the tongue with an onslaught of Smuckers strawberry jam (although this is a dry wine, so not “sweet” like actual jam) – but it didn’t have that “artificial” taste like Manischewitz. Cooked down strawberries kept on coming strong for a few seconds after swishing/swallowing and gradually drifted away over 10-15 seconds or so. What didn’t happen surprised me a lot: there was a noticeable lack of burn (usually the cheap wines burn like bad vodka) and very soft tannins (i.e. my mouth didn’t get all dry and puckered). In the end, this wine was quick to please, simple, and smooth. It might not impress a wine snob, but I was particularly impressed because I can see myself bringing it to a dinner party with complete confidence that it’ll disappear by the end of the night faster than Yellowtails and Arbor Mists. I could even grab a bottle for myself should I need a little pick-me-up.
a (who’s far more terse than me in his wine reviews) felt similarly about the Cabernet Sauvignon version:
a says: 2009 The Dreaming Tree “Cabernet Sauvignon” (USA, CA, North Coast; $16.99 at PLCB). Nice forward fruit, soft tannins, and enough backbone to keep things lively. Should be a crowd-pleaser, good dinner party gift, or everyday table wine.
t says: So there you have it. Dave’s wines are easy to drink and a sure bet for simple satisfaction. It’s less like a beautiful song and more like a pleasant chord, so it’s probably not the best for wine snob pontification … but who really wants to invite that to a dinner party anyways?
introducing … wine
t says: Lately, I’ve found myself getting more and more into wine. After having completed the CSW course at the Restaurant School (probably the hardest exam I’ve taken outside of the US Medical Licensing Exams), I knew a whole lot about wine but focused primarily on Bordeaux, Australian Shiraz, and that’s about it. Our friendship with a and v as well as our trip to California last year broadened my horizons to look into more domestic wines as well as a lot of new [to me] wine regions and varietals. We’re going to post about our wine finds in addition to our restaurant trips and our kitchen adventures.
Recently instituted was the “the cellar” section which has bottles that we [try to] keep on hand. And [very] soon, we’ll start posting about other bottles that cross our paths. So let’s raise a glass to fermented grape juice!
after dinner sneeze 