April Wine in Revew

Being back in San Francisco for a week and seeing friends socially all month longth means that I have had the opportunity to taste several new wines this month. I will use this post as a catch-all for some of the more notable or interesting finds.

Vino Mexicano

When you think of Mexico, you probably think those Corona commercials or spring break trips to Cancun before you think of a glass of fine wine. Me too! But on a recent visit to Ensenada in Baja, Mexico I visited two vineyards in the Guadalupe Valley region, both demonstrating the breadth and quality that this region can produce.

The area’s Mediterranean climate allows several varietals to thrive, including Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Tempranillo, Nebbiolo, Grenache, and the list goes on. Mexico only produces a few million cases each year, with about half of that coming from L.A. Cetto, a Guadalupe Valley mega-producer. L.A. Cetto (pronounced “la chetto”) experiments with 67 varietals, presumably still trying to find the perfect grapes for the soil and climate.

Wine isn’t as new to Mexico as you might presume. Vineyards werefirst planted by Spanish missionaries in the late 1500s, although it wasn’t until the 1800s that the Guadalupe Valley area was planted with the capability for sizeable production. The industry has boomed in recent years, although it is still trying to find its way onto the global wine map. Recently, there was a Wines of Baja tasting held in San Francisco, so the word is spreading fast, but the region needs to overcome significant geographical and historical prejudice before the wine world starts to take them seriously.

I tasted at L.A. Cetto and Casa Pedro Domecq, whose tasting rooms are just down the road from each other, only a 30 minute drive from Ensenada. Tasting fees are low ($3-5) and the ranges I tasted were surprising. Domecq’s tasting offerings illustrate how the lack of local wine regulation encourages experimentation, as I tasted a Chenin Blanc/Chardonnay blend, a Grenache Rose, and a Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Nebbiolo blend. None of them were outstanding, but the majority of them were quite good, and I even bought the bottle of Chateau Domecq as a souvenir wine (which paired well with marinated and barbequed tri-tip over the weekend).

L.A. Cetto offers more single varietals, such as a pleasing Viognier, a food-friendly oaked Chardonnay, a very good Bordeaux blend, and a well-balanced Cabernet Sauvignon Rose. Both vineyards provide tours of the facility and have modern and spacious tasting rooms. It would be interesting to have had time to visit more boutique wineries, which I imagine would involve a lot of knocking on doors to have a taste rather than rocking up during any established and well-organised tasting hours.

NZ wine tasting stats

I spent a three hour train ride from Sacramento to San Jose this week updating my wine tasting spreadsheet with all my notes and ratings from my New Zealand trip. I thought I would share some interesting statistics about what I tasted:

• Over the course of two months, I tasted (and wrote notes) on nearly 250 New Zealand wines, representing over 50 different wineries. Most of these were either at wine festivals or on wine tasting tours, but I did jot down tasting notes whenever I could at a restaurant or bar as well.
• Of the wines tasted, the greatest majority were Pinot Noir (65), then Riesling (35), Sauvignon Blanc (30) and smaller quantities of other varietals such as Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and red single varietal or blends. These numbers reflect my taste more than the actual ratios of NZ wine production, but of course, Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc are what have given NZ it's international reputation.
• My scoring distribution is divided as follows: I gave 12% an "excellent", 35% "very good", 36% "good" and 17% either an OK, non-rated, or bad (as in there is something actually wrong with the wine). I haven't decided yet if these ratings are perhaps too generous or a fair distribution. It's not fair to re-rate in hingsight, but if I was on the fence (good/very good) I gave it the lower rating when entering the scores.
• I tasted in all the major wine regions, including Auckland (Waiheke Island), Hawke's Bay, Martinborough, Marlborough, Nelson, and Central Otago. The only wine region I didn't explore much was Gisborne, on the north island. Since they are known mostly for their Chardonnay, it wasn't a high priority for me.

I will post more on specific regions and wineries, but in the meantime, feel free to ask me any questions about a specific wine you may have seen in your supermarket or wine store. There is a good chance I can tell you what it tastes like before you decide to buy it!

Revisiting California Pinot Noir and...a Conundrum

After a few months of tasting Pinot Noir across New Zealand, I came home to discover a few California Pinots in my cellar that I bought a few years ago. The first is 2004 Etude Carneros and the second is 2005 Baker Lane, Sonoma Coast, Hurst Vineyard. I remember buying the Baker Lane after reading a stellar review about it on vinography. I wasn't sure how long to keep them, but curious to open at least one of them, I brought the Baker Lane on my Ensenada cruise last weekend.

We opened the bottle on Sunday night, and it was definitely the best of the three bottles we brought (2004 Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon and Caymus Conundrum* being the other two). The aromas were black cherry, jammy, and bright berries. It was definitely ready to drink and paired excellently with my mushroom soup starter and my norwegian salmon main. Everyone at the table loved it, and I was glad I had saved it for a semi-special occasion.

To close the gap in my cellar, I also purchased an Etude Carneros Pinot Noir from '05 so that I can do a vertical tasting with the '04/'05 at a later date.

*I've had two Caymus Conundrums in the past week - a 2007 and a 2006. Both vintages teetered on the edge of an off-dry riesling more than the predominant Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Viognier blends that I recognise from previous years. The website indicates that the blend of grapes is still true to its roots, but maybe there is more Muscat in recent vintages to give it the higher sugar content? Either way, I still thoroughly enjoy this wine, and consistently find it to be a crowd-pleaser and to pair with a variety of foods. I trust Caymus on this one, but I am still really curious to know what's inside the bottle!

My Top 4 NZ wines

It would be impossible to sum up my New Zealand wine experience in one post, so I will write several posts over the next month to focus on different topics. I suppose the best way to tell which wines I was most impressed by is to know which wines I actually chose to purchase and bring back to the US with me.

I (mostly) restrained from buying bottles until the very end of my two month trip. Bottles I bought along the way were consumed along the way or given as gifts. In the end, I only brought back reds with me, the main logic being that reds are the wines you cellar and age, and that's what I wanted to do with my purchases. It's harder to get as excited about a white wine, even though I did discover some fantastic ones in the form of off-dry Rieslings and of course Sauvignon Blancs.

Here are the four wines I purchased, and a bit of background as to how I discovered and chose this particular wine:

2007 Mt. Difficulty Pipeclay Terrace Pinot Noir: The bouquet has strong floral notes (dark red roses and lilac according to the vineyard), with dry dirt, earthiness and hints of chocolate. All very impressive flavours for a young Pinot Noir. In fact, I don't think I need to hold on to this one for more than a few years. It will be in the category of ready to drink when I am ready to drink it.

I tasted this wine at Wine Taste in Queenstown, one of those wine dispenser tasting stores that can be a great substitute for visiting the vineyards themselves. I did taste in Central Otago, but only in the Gibbston Valley area, just outside Queenstown. After looking forward to Central Otago Pinots my entire trip, I was disappointed with the Pinots I had at Gibbston Valley Vineyard, Waitiri Creek, Chard Farm and Amisfield. They were good, but not great. Mt. Difficulty is farther east in the Bannockburn area, where prestigious wineries such as Felton Road and Akarua are based.

Price: $90 NZD in country ($53 USD or 36 GBP equivalent). International distributors here.

2007 Nautilus Four Barriques Pinot Noir: I first tasted this wine at the 2009 Marlborough Wine Festival in Blenheim at the Nautilus booth. It was the only wine that day that I purchased a second tasting of and in a full glass size. I thought my enthusiasm for the wine might just be the wine talking until I tasted it again first thing the next morning at the vineyard itself. It was just as good, with raspberry flavours and oak or cedar spice. A terrifically well-balanced wine, it was on my favourites list.

Both events were only halfway through my trip, so I wasn't able to purchase and carry the bottle with me at the time. When I was making my final wine decisions during my last week, this wine still came back to me, so I had my friend, Annette, ship it to me. Oddly enough, she is renting a room in Blenheim from the marketing director of Nautilus, so it was fairly easy for her to procure a bottle and ship it to my hostel in Christchurch only a few days before I left the country.

Price: $60 NZD in country ($35 USD or 24 GBP equivalent). This wine is not distributed outside New Zealand, however Nautilus also makes a very good Sauvignon Blanc and regular Pinot Noir. International distributors here.

2006 Ata Rangi Celebre: This is a 50% Merlot, 30% Syrah, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon with excellent white pepper and tobacco reminiscent of Northern Rhone Syrahs. Fruit flavours of dark plum and bright berries round out a fantastic wine to pair with steak or rich sauce pastas.

I drank this wine quite a bit during my stay, first at the vineyard in Martinborough where I purchased a bottle, then later on that night when I shared the bottle with fellow wine travellers, again at dinner with a friend in Queenstown and finally at Wine Tastes, just to confirm my choice. At $32 NZD retail, it is a good value and very enjoyable. See reviews from well-known wine critics here. I have also enjoyedthe 2007 Ata Rangi's Crimson Pinot Noir.

Price: $32NZD in country ($19 USD or 13 GBP equivalent). International distributors here.

2004 Alpha Domus "The Navigator": A Bordeaux-style blend from Hawke's Bay on the North Island, the Navigator is well-structured but drinkable now. It contains Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec. As published in Hawke's Bay Today Sip of the Week: "It's almost a crime to have this wine shut away in a bottle - there should be enormous open vats of it out in the public spaces for us to all swim around in."

I tried this wine at the vineyard at the 2009 Hawke's Bay Wine Festival, noting that it was excellent (as was the similar "Aviator" although at a $45NZD price tag). I was pleasantly surprised to find it during my last week in the country, and I look forward to opening this in the near future (I don't think I can wait!)

Price: $25 NZD in country ($15 USD or 10 GBP equivalent). International distributors here.