Wine Tasting - March 28

Name: Canyon Road Chardonnay

Vintage: 2011

Region: Modesto, California

Price: $6.95

Tasting Notes: Medium-bodied wine with notes of crisp apple and ripe citrus fruit with a hint of cinnamon spice.  Delicious complement to grilled chicken, lighter pasta dishes or mild cheeses.

My Review: Of the wines at the Vintage Cellar this week, this was my favorite.  The smell was fruity with apple aromas.  It was nice, light and crisp.  However, it didn’t’ have a whole lot of flavor, but would be very good as a summer wine. 

Name: Sainte Victoire Cotes de Provence

Vintage: 2011
Region: Provence, France

Price: $8.95

Tasting Notes: Varieties: Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault.  Bright salmon pink; typical of the fresh but warm Provence style.  Refined and complex on the nose, with summer fruit and floral notes. Dry and crisp with a delicate flavor and full texture.

My Review: This wine had a very interesting light salmon pink color that I had never seen before.  The smell was very sweet and floral.  It tasted crisp, floral, and had a nice flavor but I couldn’t distinguish and specific flavors.  It was one of the better rosé’s that I have had.

Name: Montebuena  

Vintage: 2010
Region: Rioja, Spain

Price: $8.95

Tasting Notes: 100% Tempranillo.  Ripe cherry and blackcurrant on the nose and in the mouth.  Pliant and seamless in texture, with good heft and back-end energy.  Finishes smooth and sweet, with fine-grained tannins providing shape and grip.  Still on the young side but this wine drinks very well with an hour or so of decanting; it’s an excellent value for Rioja.

My Review: The wine had a nice rich red color and smelled very much like cherries, which had me excited.  But as I have come to find out, after trying several Tempranillo’s, I do not enjoy them very much.  The taste definitely had some spice to it and it felt heavy.  It also had a very dry end component that I did not care for very much.

Name: Tres Ojos Garnacha  

Vintage: 2011
Region: Calatayud, Spain

Price: $6.95

Tasting Notes: This wine has a brick red color with bouquet of red raspberries, spice and white pepper.  The palate is incredibly concentrated and rich.  The modern styles of Garnacha in Spain are continuously being perceived worldwide as wines of extraordinarily good quality.  This wine is fruity, juicy and shows a great depth, ripe tannins, length but yet with wonderful elegance and lightness.  

My Review: I think I would have really liked this wine if it did not have the pepper aspect to it.  The smell was very peppery with a slight hint of fruit.  The taste was very heavy on the spice and pepper.  I could definitely tell how it changed over the palate though: it started off fruity on the beginning and it transitioned into the spicy and peppery flavor in the mid to end palate.

Name: Emeri de Bortoli Sparking Shiraz

Vintage: NV
Region: Southeastern Australia

Price: $9.95

Tasting Notes: A relatively light, fresh style of sparking Shiraz, with berries and hints of chocolate picking up and just a touch of sweet vanilla on the finish.

My Review: I was intrigued by this wine because I had never had a sparkling red before.  The aromas very sweet and had berry fruit aspects.  The temperature and amount of fizziness was very nice on the mouth – I really liked it before I could actually taste it, but then when I got the full flavor, I didn’t like it too much – but I really wanted to!

Grape Varietal Report

Grape Varietal Report – Chenin Blanc

By: Lauren Yokley

            Chenin Blanc grapes date all the way back to the 9^th century in the Anjou wine region (France), where they are believed to have originated.  By the 15^th century the grapes had spread to Touraine, France and then migrated throughout the Loire Valley where it is very popular now.  Chenin Blanc is primarily grown in France, South Africa, and the United States.  This grape variety is one of the most versatile wine grape varieties – it can produce dry table wines, sparkling wines, sweet dessert wines, and even brandy.  

Chenin Blanc is known for its high acidity – which can greatly increase its longevity.  The high acidity allows it to be grown in locations that would be too warm for several other grape varieties.  However, because the grapevine buds early in the growing season and ripens late, it can be difficult for growers in cooler climates because it may not have enough time to fully ripen on the vine.  But it does have a good resistance to diseases and is tolerable of many soil types.

The climate of the region will largely determine if the wine is produced in a sweet or dry manner and the soil type will typically influence the overall style of the wine.  General Chenin Blanc descriptors include: apple, floral, grassy, herbal, tropical fruit, almond, honey, pear, honeydew, and cantaloupe.  Old-World style flavors and aromas are honey, flowers, almonds, peach, and straw.  Whereas New-World style Chenin Blanc wines are more fruit-focused and have more tropical fruit, guava, apple, and grass components.  Aging in oak barrels isn’t very typical, but if the process is used, it will bring in more vanilla and sweet wood flavors.

Chenin Blanc can be versatile in food and wine pairings, but knowing the style of the wine will determine what type of food will merry best with the wine.  Light, dry wines go very well with salad, chicken, and fish (and other seafood), whereas sweeter styles can be paired with spicy Asian dishes as they can balance the heat.

Loire Valley, France

The Loire Valley is where the Chenin Blanc grape variety and it is the location most closely associated with the variety.  In the 1970’s, much of the Chenin Blanc plantings were uprooted because of the more favorable Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc, and the easier-to-grow Gamay.  Because of this the variety was consolidated to the middle Loire.  Vouvray is a small region within the Valley that produces 100% Chenin Blanc (and will most likely be labeled as Vouvray on wine bottles rather than Chenin Blanc).  The Vouvray region boasts about 2,000 hectares of Chenin Blanc grapes.

In the Loire Valley, French regulations mandate that the yields to be kept low – this allows for the characteristic Chenin Blanc flavors to be more prominent rather than in high yield vineyards where the flavors become more bland and diluted.  For Chenin Blanc production, the Loire Valley has the lowest yields compared to the other famous regions of South Africa and California.  Due to its cool climate, this region produces dry Chenin Blanc usually with a fairly high acidity.  Even though this region has less plantings and produces smaller yields, it arguably has the best and most respected Chenin Blanc wines in the world.

South Africa

Although not was well-known and glamorous as the Loire Valley, South African wines are increasing in popularity.  Chenin Blanc from South Africa are also called and locally known as “Steen” and is the most widely cultivated vine, accounting for 20% of all plantings.   The country has almost 19,000 hectares of Chenin Blanc!  The majority of Chenin Blanc grapes are planted in the Stellenbosch, Paarl, and Worcester regions.

Since the climate is very warm, Chenin Blanc grapes do very well and the acidity is balanced with tropical fruit emphasis (very different from the flavor profile of the French Chenin Blanc).  

California

California is another well-known producer of Chenin Blanc – it is the 3^rd most widely planted white wine grape in the state at 5,300 hectares (mostly in the Central Valley).  Chenin Blanc has been used as a blending grape in California and tends to be overshadowed by the “big” wines, such as Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon.  Also a New-World wine, the flavor profile is similar to that of the South African Chenin.

(*Note: no official worldwide Chenin Blanc plantings in hectares could be found)

Sources:

http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/jrs03411

http://www.winepros.org/wine101/grape_profiles/chenin.htm

http://grapeencounters.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/learning-the-whites-chenin-blanc/

http://www.wine-sa.com/chenin-blanc/