Wines Posted in 2014

Just in time for New Year's Eve 2014 (my wife and I, as we have for the last 4 years running, will be enjoying a couple bottles of Chaucer's Mead, which is our own sort of tradition), this is a post collecting all of the wines posted to this blog in 2014. Rather than doing a year-end blog post, as I do on my hot sauce blog and as others in the so-called blogosphere do, this cumulative yearly post will instead serve as a sort of running list of names of the wines I keep on the official HSC wine list (see first couple of posts for criteria).

Please note this list is not weighted, so the numbers are just the order of chronological posting only.

01) Martini & Rossi Asti
02) Navarro Correas Colección Privada [Malbec] 
03) Concannon Crimson & Clover [Blend]
04) Fat Bastard Chardonnay
05) Penfold Koonunga Hill Shiraz-Cabernet
06) Bouchard Chardonnay
07) Colosi Sicilia Rosso [Nero d'Avola]
08) Terredora DiPaolo Aglianico
09) Marqués de Cáceres Crianza Rioja [Blend]
10) A By Acacia Pinot Noir
11) Dark Horse Big Red Blend
12) Columbia Crest Grand Estate Merlot
13) Apothic Red [Blend]
14) Penfold Koonunga Hill Shiraz 
15) Sean Minor Pinot Noir Carneros 
16) Castello Del Poggio Moscato
17) Atrea Old Soul Red [Blend]

Issue XVII: Atrea Old Soul Red Edition

Atrea Old Soul Red [Blend]

The HSC is constantly monitoring and searching for additions to the list and during the genesis, much of the research was online. As I’ve noted before, while we’re not afraid to buy a wine based on the label, it’s always good to have a few pointers to names you might otherwise miss. In this case, one of the weekly rags here asked a number of chefs which wine under $20 they would buy. This name (and another that will be in a future installment) came up and though both of them are pushing that $20 limit (we like to pretend here at the HSC that tax does not exist, just as that particular article did), they both also fall under and so qualify.

Atrea, a division of the usually very impressive Saracina winery, has a very tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, as evidenced by its “Skid Rose’” wine but also has a nice sense of the refined, with its “The Choir” white blend and this one, so named for “a complexity and maturity beyond its years.” They also have a very distinct labeling system, which though a bit plain and basic, does enable them to be easily distinguishable from literally everything else around them.

In many ways, this wine was a revelation to me, as it truly illustrated the power, fine finesse and taste possible in a blend, a category to which I’d previously paid scant, if any, attention. To give you an idea how this has shifted, blends are probably right near the top of my favorite. I also formerly thought France was the only wine-producing region that mattered and now find Italy to be more my favorite, though the region with the most names on the list is California.

That aside, what we have here is a blend of Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Malbec and Syrah, percentages varying by year. If you’re thinking this means a fairly dense wine leaning towards the heavier side, you’d be right, but with the Malbec and Syrahs, it never becomes overbearingly so. Where this really points up the best of what blends can be is in drinkability. This can either be consumed at the time (what we usually do) or stored. It is a very well-balanced wine in all respects, not super-smooth, but not especially rough, either and it requires very little airing time, comparatively. If you’re not sold on blends, one bottle of this and you’ll be a believer.

As noted, a bottle of this is pushing right against that $20 ceiling. I have never seen this particular brand or any of the variations, including this, on SPA, ever, which precludes it from SPA Only. With that kind of price point, it also makes it difficult to tag as a Standard, so by process of elimination, this comes in as a Mixed. I try to get in a bottle of this here and there as it is such a strong addition to any rotation.

 

Issue XVI: Castello Del Poggio Moscato Edition

Castello Del Poggio Moscato

The HSC train rolls mightily along, constantly searching and testing, to further bolster the list and with this column, to bring the results to you, so that we might all prosper. Unquestionably, try as our not-very-trained HSC staff (me) might, we still wind up with a bevy of duds, wines, that while are not bad, are just of not high enough quality to make the cut. I think we’re running somewhere in the neighborhood of one addition every 10 – 15 different wines…something like that. Once I started this list, it's gone down quite a bit as I will take entire weekends to just enjoy the fruits of the list, rather than even the modified testing of one new wine and one "anchor" wine (that's on the list already), a far cry from the early stages, when nearly everything was experimentation all the time. Some of the wines will take more than one testing, but most we can tell right out of the gate are either going to make the list or not. This was one that did and is the first that was added in 2014.

From the first sip of this slightly effervescent (carbonated) sweet potion, we knew we were onto something. I got it initially for a dessert my wife wanted to make and I think it was a struggle for her to not only keep enough for the dessert but also to save enough so I could sample it, as I like to do with everything boozy that comes through here (with few exceptions). After tasting the two or three swallows that my dearest had *ahem* graciously allowed me, it was clear I had to get another bottle to re-test. My immediate thought was to just add it to the list, but that small amount, while enough to get a good feel, is not enough to really gain a grasp. We are, of course, wanting full grasp on these things.

Moscato, for those of you unawares, is one of the sweeter dessert grapes out there. In this case, it is just a matter of chilling to the desired temp, twisting off the screwcap, pour and go. You get a nice prominent sweetness, but not enough to be cloying, somewhat reminiscent of honey and some of the lighter fruits in tone, but definitely having that distinctive Muscat taste to it. It is by no means heavy, rather on the lighter side, but just enough heft to give it the right touch of mouth feel.  It’s not in the territory of a full-on champagne, but it does very lightly graze the side with its sparkly nature and grace notes of apple. In short, this is the type of wine that people who don’t like wine will love.

For around $11 a bottle and with high drinkability, you can almost always find room for a bottle of this. The applications of using it for desserts are very strong with this as well and it’s one of the more versatile wines on the list, as long you’re looking at something on the sweet side. This meets all the criteria of a Standard, though we frankly don’t get it frequently as we’d usually rather have something heavier and with more body and complex tones for our movie nights, but for those times that we do pick it up, it never disappoints.