Cumulative List Of Wines Posted (Circa 2015)

This is an update and continuation of the run-down I did for the wines I posted last year, which went to #17. The 20 I posted this year follow from there.

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]

18) Meiomi Pinot Noir

19) Montebuena Rioja [Tempranillo]

20) Sean Minor Cabernet Sauvignon

21) Peralillo Arenal Carmenere

22) Zantho St. Laurent

23) Clean Slate Riesling

24) Gloria Reynolds Tinto Real [Blend]

25) Prunotto Fiulot Barbera D’Asti

26) Menage A Trois [Blend]

27) Fantini Farnese Montepulciano D'Abruzzo

28) Rosenblum Vintner’s Cuvée XXXVI [Zinfandel]

29) Sean Minor Sauvignon Blanc

30) Michael David Sixth Sense Syrah

31) Borja Borsao Tinto Seleccion [Garnacha]

32) 19 Crimes [Blend]

33) Fat Bastard Cabernet Sauvignon

34) Tait Ball-Buster [Blend]

35) Bouchard Pinot Noir

36) Francis Ford Coppola Claret [Blend]

37) Chaucer's Mead

Issue XXXVII: Chaucer’s Mead Edition

Chaucer’s Mead

Ahhh, mead. Is it a wine or is it a beer? Perhaps this is the question first and foremost we should address. Given that I have made mead a number of times myself, I can assert that I used, every time and without fail, a wine yeast. This, in itself, leads then to the conclusion that what I made, at least, was more a wine than a beer…or was it? The process was also identical, nearly, to how I home-brewed beer, at least in the early stages, so perhaps it is more like a beer…except there are more similarities than differences in brewing any sort of alcoholic beverage at that level. Indeed, in the early stages, perhaps all alcohol fermentation is apt to be more alike than not and the secondary stages and the primary ingredients are then the main differences. All this academia aside, I’m sticking with it being a wine.

Now then, without a digression into the author of Canterbury Tales, we slip into another entry that is perhaps one of the more confusing ones as this is a wine we only drink once a year and that is on New Year’s Eve for our annual celebration of the crowning year upon the dead and shambled husk of the previous one…or just changing calendars. So, the wine is not nearly good enough to be a constant companion and is quite inferior to the ones I’ve brewed, so why is it on this list?

There’s a few reasons. The first is that it probably will be the only mead you can find. In this case, someone wisely saw and filled a void and it is fortunate that this is as good as it is…if you want to experience mead, that is. It is also a very, very light wine and like all entries on this list, easy on the senses, meaning that for a list to appear on here, it also cannot be skull-breaking for yours truly the next day. The taste here is more on the sweet side, but it is neither the full-on sweet blast of an early mead nor the very airy and dry taste of one that has spent more time in the rack.

The second reason is that it does have a bit of magic to it. My wife and I have greatly enjoyed having this as a tradition and it’s something to which we look forward to every year. Perhaps more an extension of the second reason, but third, maybe, is the fact that this is very accessible and flexible. We’ve had it cold, room temperature, hot and mulled and all of them were delectable with perhaps mulled, which we finally tried at the end of 2014, being our new favorite. This is not an easy task for any wine to pull off, yet this one did it easily and breathlessly. It also lists it as sort of being a dessert wine, but that is a bit of a misnomer. This one will come nowhere near any Moscato or ice wine or even a good Riesling.

As with all whites, this one will not be ranked, but given that this has become sort of an ironclad tradition for us now, this deserves to be noted and recognized thusly. Perhaps if more people experience the delight and unique taste sensation that only mead can deliver, it will become more popular enough to keep the bees at work and put this concoction in the ranks of its grape brethren.

Issue XXXVI: Coppola Claret Edition

Francis Ford Coppola Claret [Blend]

Most know Frances Ford Coppola for his list of seminal movies, but his passion is no less for wines as he owns or partially owns several vineyards, most with an emphasis on keeping wine accessible and family-friendly, if such a term fits, as he remembered from his childhood. Good on him there, but that doesn’t work if the wines won’t play and by my accounting, though admittedly, he does have several levels, the only one I’ve found to be especially suitable is this, the stunning Claret.

A bit on the term “claret”, since it doesn’t really go with a grape…instead, it is a British term for a blend or style of wine made in the tradition established in the Bordeaux region of France. Great, I hear you saying, but what does that mean? Claret, speaking from an etymology perspective, is derived from clarus, the Latin word for clear or transparent. Now…given that wine hitting England from when the word was coined, so to speak, was much lighter, by all accounts, a sort of rose’, this would have been perhaps had at least some basis in description and possibly they would have needed it to describe a style that was copied elsewhere and perhaps not necessarily originating in France at all.

As to that style, the so-called “Bordeaux” style, this generally refers to a blend and this wine indeed is such a blend, incorporating Cabernet, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec, though the Cabernet is by far the greatest percentage. This gives a very good, solid, perhaps “woody”, to borrow a bit from another British export, the ever-fantastic Monty Python, liquid. It is also quite tasty.

It’s a touch on the dry side and clearly the winemaker behind this was going for character and complexity as both are here in ample portions. There are several dark notes here and if you follow the pattern I do, which is to start slightly chilled, you will be rewarding with a shifting pallet as the wine both airs and takes on more room temperature. In terms of making something accessible, Coppola has come forward well and this is one of those wines I would suggest people start with (the other being Atrea Old Soul Red) when they first decide to undertake the wine journey as it will immediately set a strong tone.

They also are then starting near the upper price limit of this list as well. The vineyard obviously intended for this to be an elegant, yet rich, round and full-bodied higher end entry, as noted by the gold netting denoting such a thing traditionally with which the bottle is draped. I’ve yet to ever see this on SPA and it would be a fantastic deal if it was, yet as noted, it is pushing the upper ceiling of this list and as such, is another that checks in as a Mixed.