Tag Archives: California

A Plug for California Wines

Posted on 2010.01.31 by Evan Hansen

Something is happening.

Generally, I’m not a fan of California wines. Oak, blackberry flavors, designer yeast, viscous textures, high alcohol, and things of that sort are not my preferred drink characteristics. And while there are certainly some wines that break that mold, they still manage to fall short, often for too high a price. Of course, Joseph Swan gave me hope. I rather enjoy those wines.

But nothing could prepare me for the shock I felt when drinking Bonny Doon’s new biodynamic wines. Friend Putnam Weekley handles the beverage duties at El Barzon in Detroit, and with the restaurant’s chef, he put together a 7-course dinner with these new offerings from Randall Graham. The retail prices on these wines ranged from $17 for a sangiovese to a CdP-style blend in the $30 range.

The fantastically good news? They’re really damn good. I’d honestly drink some of these wines with or in lieu of similarly priced European counterparts. With low alcohol, decent acidity, and unmanipulated ripeness, these are food friendly, drinkable wines.

Something is happening. A U.S. state is making delicious natural wine. I’m stunned.

So lift your glass to California. Or at least to Bonny Doon.

Posted in GUD Blog | Tagged California, wine | 8 Comments

A Night with Friends

Posted on 2009.12.31 by Evan Hansen

Around lunch time yesterday, I got a call from my friend Steve who put forth the idea of getting together at his place for dinner. So Suz and I drove down and dined with his family, gnoshing on some great braised lamb shanks and drinking quite a bit of wine together in the process.

We started with 2006 Bourgogne “Le Chapitre” from Rene Bouvier, which was a colorful, pleasant surprise of sweet cherry, exceeding what one might expect from a bourgogne rouge.

Next, we tried a 1998 Chinon “Beaumont” from Catherine & Pierre Breton, a favorite producer of Loire Valley cab franc of those of us at Swigs — and certainly a favorite of our host for the evening. So I brought this along, hoping it’d meet our expectations, which were quite lofty given the wine’s age and our mutual adoration. It was, I thought, a marvel. How many twenty-something dollar cab francs retain fruit for 11 years? The nose was leathery and acidic at the same time — Steve’s wife thought it had an aroma of olives — and it was loaded with fruit, rough leather, and freshy acidity.

A 2002 Chassagne-Montrachet “Clos de la Boudriotte” VV from Vincent Girardin clearly had some brettanomyces, though this was an interesting experiment in how different people perceive different aromas and flavors. Last year, Todd, Steve, another friend, and I were drinking a beaujolais. Steve and our friend thought it reeked of sewage and animale and tasted similarly, thus rendering it undrinkable, but Todd and I thought it smelled like bubblegum and was overly sweet. This Giradin was no different: While I agreed with Steve that there was brett on the nose and palate, I was tasting more cherry and fruit and he was getting more of the barnyard qualities.

The highlight of the evening had to be Henri Gouges’ 1995 Nuits St. Georges “Les St. Georges”, a masculine but nuanced glass of wine with a lot of angularity and smoke to accent a rich, dark cherry core.

We finished the evening with a 2006 Cotes du Rosa Rhone-style blend from Joseph Swan and a 2002 Volnay from J.M. Boillot. The former was opened at the wrong time and place — it just couldn’t follow all that burgundy — but once our palates were cleaned up a bit, it was a sweet, flowery, well-balanced wine that I think would have easily belonged on the table at the right point in the evening. The Volnay was a bit weighted down with Brett as well, but otherwise was a bit of a relative — a really small-time younger cousin — to the Gouges.

Paired with good company and some braised lamb, these were part of a Wednesday night that I couldn’t have imagined to be better.

Posted in GUD Blog | Tagged California, France, pinot noir, wine | Leave a comment

Swan Cuvee du Trois

Posted on 2009.10.15 by Evan Hansen

American wines don’t have a significant presence in my little basement collection of vino. But I have close to two cases of wines from Joseph Swan. A few bottles of Swan’s pinot noir from Trenton Estate, which I believe is the original Swan vineyard, made its way into Michigan a few years ago, and I was stunned to learn that it was an American wine. It didn’t reek of “grand cru” burgundy, but it certainly had an elegance that hid its true origin. Later, a friend exposed me to some of their zinfandels as well, which showed the same restraint as the pinot. As a bonus, I’ve been to the winery twice and gotten to meet and chat with the folks there: Rod (the winemaker) and his colleagues are exceptionally cool people. On my most recent visit, I walked in to him lamenting over-priced, over-hyped California wines and winemakers’ driving Mercedes-Benz automobiles. I later read that he actually loses money on his “top” pinot noir, the same one that I’d had in Michigan that started me down this path. And Karen, who manages his tasting room and handles most of the logistical details, is from Michigan and went to high school a few miles from my house. Small world.

Anyhow, the Cuvee de Trois is their baseline pinot, and I’m drinking my way through a bottle tonight. The 2006 I’ve just uncorked is the fourth bottle of this Cuvee I’ve had, spread across two vintages, and all of them show a soft acidity on the nose. The aromatics drift between tart cherry and a lively strawberry. Similar berry flavors emerge on the palate, but unlike most California pinot noir I’ve tasted over the past few years — from Siduri to cheaper plonk — it has an almost cutting tartness. It lacks the rugged, earthy qualities of the single vineyard wines, which I prefer, but this is a light, fresh, delightful drink of booze.

The Details

Name: Cuvee de Trois

Vintage: 2006

Producer: Joseph Swan

Location: Sonoma, California, USA

Grape: Pinot Noir

Alcohol: 14.1%

Posted in GUD Blog | Tagged California, pinot noir, wine | 3 Comments