Greensleeves... or just green wine

Well, I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving, mine was quite enjoyable. The break from school and free reign in a kitchen at home with loads of spices and ingredients is always fun. While this meant that I had to shelve my reviews for a few days, fear not, I did in fact continue my virtual, wine led walk through the valleys of Argentina.

This review is dedicated to a grape Id heard was sharp as a tack and clean as a whistle, one that would make a safe choice with salads in a variety of styles. Such a thought left me with a worry that it would just taste sterile, but I conjoured up a bottle of 2006 Finca El Portillo Sauvignon Blanc, and had mixed opinions.

Price (Paid in Ithaca NY): $10

Maker: Finca El Portillo

Vintage: 2006

Country/Appelation: Argentina/Mendoza (Valle De Uco)

Varietal/Blend: 100% Sauvignon Blanc

Special Designations: Estate Bottled

Nose: The nose is just a bit off, disrupting the clean sharp green scent that otherwise dominates.

Taste: The medium body beefs up the lighter taste of green apple, blending into a grapefruittyness that lingers on the aftertaste. Unfortuntely, Im not a huge han of grapfruit and the aftertaste follows the fruit exactly, making it pretty annoying. The very lively acidity and dry greeness of the wine make it clean and sharp, too bad the aftertaste wrecks it for me.

QPR: Good

Pairings: Salads still seem to be what I would go with here. The razor-like acidity would seem more paired to a warm weather sort of gathering. The green atmosphere it carries could also pair well with melon or other such fruit I suppose.

Final Thoughts: This grape lived up to its reputation as being an acidic but clear wine. I didn't appreciate the grapefruitiness in the taste and aftertaste, but that could just be that I don't really like grapefruit. I would be more than willing to try the varietal again, as the rest of the wine impressed me alot, but I couldn't get over that one little hump, the grapefruit.

Argentina! Ole!

A couple of my favorite wine blogs have recently reviewed Argentinian wines, praising them as both economical and wonderfully flavorful, on top of them being the next great region. With that high praise in mind, I wanted to look for a varietal that was uniquely Argentinian, something that wasn't also grown in 30 other countries. What I ended up settling upon was a Malbec. Now most casual wine lovers either haven't heard of Malbec or seem to get it confused with Muscat. Trust me, the two are VERY different. For a good run down on this varietal, the folks at winepros.org wrote a good one here.

Malbec is really only grown prominently in one other place in the world, Cahors, France. There it is usually blended, but in Argentina, there is a substantial amount of wine that is 100% Malbec. With Malbec chosen, I gave Argentina a shot to impress me.

Price (Paid in Ithaca NY): $10

Maker: Terrazas de los Andes (A producer with a very good reputation, vouched for by multiple people)

Vintage: 2006

Country/Appelation: Argentina/Mendoza

Varietal/Blend: 100% Malbec

Nose: A very dark scent, leathery and choclatey, with a hint of astringency.

Taste: A deep though lighter feeling taste of dark fruit, cola/smokey flavor, and a bit of spice all kind of muddle together in this middle-wieght wine. It stays a touch on the sweeter side and has almost a nice chalky finish that comes out with some air.

QPR: Good/Very Good

Pairings: Well, the hick side of me shows when I say that I was snacking on jerky while drinking this wine, and it actually went very well. If you are a fan of matching your wine flavors to your food, it did it perfectly. A touch of sweet smokiness, deeper meatiness and (because it was cheap jerky) easy going down. On a more serious side, this could pair nicely with any red meat that doesn't involve alot of work to savor, eat and enjoy (ie drink with burgers, not steak).

Final Thoughts: This was a good, solid wine at a very good price. If it was a little better organized, or was a couple bucks cheaper, it would be totally a Very Good QPR, but for now, its borderline. Argentina did well here. I would be willing to try the Riserva in the future. Viva le Argentina! Wait, that was French, hmm...

Cellar, or house?

Recently, a few of my favorite wine blogs have been been "showing their racks" to the reading world. (See http://goodwineunder20.blogspot.com/ , and http://lennthompson.typepad.com/lenndevours/, their flickr group is here) Well, I'll skip the pictures, as mine is fairly easy to describe: it's our house. Thats right, our house is actually our cellar, thermostatically set to a cellar perfect 55 degrees F, and reasonably humid as well. While you might say this sounds extreme, its actually quite practical. Think, in colder weather, we spend a significant amount of money on heat. If you're investing in a decent size cellar, and don't have a basement that lends itself to the project, you're also spending a sizeable amount of dough. I realize this is a slightly rediculous proposition, but maybe if we all keep our houses a little cooler, we'll enjoy well kept wine and have more money to spend on it too. Hey, its a thought, right?

Simply simple

Last night was our latest bottle opening at the house, and it led to a simple conslusion, simple can be simply nice. I personally am a big fan of a nice robust and complex wine, with alot of action and interaction between notes and flavors, while one of my fellow tasters tends to prefer something easier to drink and simple, something he doesn't have to puzzle over every time he takes a sip. Since most of our consumption come with light snacks in the evening or while studying, sometimes that complexity can be annoying or distracting from the tasks at hand.

This brings me to my selection of the previous evening:

Price (Paid in Ithaca NY): $10

Maker: Tapena (with the little N squiggle)

Vintage: 2006

Country/Appelation: Spain

Varietal/Blend: 100% Garnacha

Nose: Dark Fruit and Lighter Flowers

Taste: Dark Cherries are the main fruit here, showing sweetness upfront, and then taking a bit of spice in the middle. The close kicks out the spice though and finishes simply fruity, maybe with some plummyness added on the close. No tannins and not much acid, but the taste becomes more balenced against the acid with considerable air. An easy to drink, simple, sweet but not dessert sweet wine.

QPR: Good

Pairings: God really knows, its too sweet to be serious with anything substantial, but too dark to be a good dessert wine. Perhaps it goes best with a bagel with some mildly sharp cheddar melted over it? (It happens to be pairing well with such at the moment)

Final Thoughts: This is a nice wine to broaden your palate and taste something truely red that has no tannin. It's cheap enough to forgive lacking alot of good grenache spice, and also economical enough to enjoy with lighter, less serious people and faire.
Simple can be good!

The First Post

Well ladies and gents, here it is. The Cornell Sommelier is a blog about reasonably priced wines and the occasional foray into using them with fine foods, all while drawing from the culinary and viticultural of Cornell University. I hope this becomes a source of reasonable advice and discussion as the experiences of a few Cornellians interested in wine are shared with the world.