Wines I'm Drinking: Recent Grocery Outlet Wines (December 9, 2016)

Ever hopeful of finding bargains, I continue to visit my local Grocery Outlet on a regular basis. I've tried a couple dozen wines there in the past few weeks. As usual the majority are fairly uninteresting, if not objectionable, but I've lately come across a few bargains and a few worth mentioning as wines to avoid. The biggest recent disappointment was probably the 2009 Ripanera Chianti Classico. Ripanera is a fairly reliable brand for everyday wines. I've had decent examples in the past, but this wine was flawed, with an odd, jarring, volatile component. I took it back.

The 2014 Castle Tower Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel looked promising—although "Castle Tower" sounds like one of those generic, made-up names slapped onto wine of no special interest just to get it on the market. The wine was fairly tannic, not very fruit-forward, shortish, and generally ungenerous. Not terribly interesting. The 2013 Benison Lodi Zinfandel I tasted it with was better, with some red berry and sandalwood scents and a bright palate. Although it seemed a bit hollow—the flavors disappearing on the mid-palate—it came back with a fairly concentrated fruity, if somewhat woody finish. Acceptable everyday wine.

Recent Grocery Outlet finds that seem particularly worth recommending include the 2011 Bailiwick Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($6.99). Pinot Noir is perhaps the hardest of all common varieties to find cheap. I've been disappointed over and over again trying to find decent examples at an affordable price. The Bailiwick Pinot is not fine Burgundy, but it's quite solid California-style Pinot at a bargain price. It's as good as some I've tasted costing four to five times as much. It has presence and true Pinot qualities with a little character of its own. I went back for a case. Recommended—if it's not all gone. (The label shown here is the 2010 Russian River Valley Pinot from Bailiwick.)

A good deal is the 2011 Alto Cinco Garnacha ("High Five" get it?), from Spain. Another decent wine for everyday consumption with real Grenache character. Grenache is an under-rated grape in my view. When well done, it can have an irresistibly appealing ripe fruitiness. Also not bad is the 2013 Flying Feet Syrah.

Around Thanksgiving time I picked up a decent Champagne, the D'Armanville Brut, for $19.99 a bottle—actually less than that, as they were having a 20% off sale on all wines at the time. I can't say the D'Armanville is the best Champagne I've ever had, but it's competently made, has pleasingly fine bubbles, and is a nice change from the local sparkling wines in the same price range from the likes of Mumm Napa and Roederer. It's hard to find real Champagne of any kind at this price, although Grocery Outlet now has another on the shelves at $19.99 (with a blue label, I've forgotten the name) that was not as good, with comparatively large, loose bubbles and a bit on the sweet side despite being labeled "Brut". The D'Armanville is still available at the time of writing. I also picked up several bottles of a decent $6.99 Cava called Gran Barón. This appears to be gone, but I'll be picking up more if it appears again. Not great wine by any means, but respectable, everyday sparkling wine—and why not drink sparkling wine every day?

I have no financial or other connections with any producer or retailer of wine. For more wine reviews, use the "Wines I'm Drinking" label at top right

Wines I'm Drinking: 2005 Pata Negra Valdepeñas Gran Reserva

The 2005 Pata Negra Valdepeñas Gran Reserva, although heavily discounted, was a pleasant surprise. Medium-deep garnet--pretty in the glass. Cherries, licorice, chocolate, and mint on the nose are echoed on the palate. At ten years old, this wine from Valdepeñas, in central Spain, is soft and supple--perhaps even a little lacking in tannic backbone, but a very pleasant, smooth, easy drink that's a bargain at only $5.99 at Grocery outlet. A decent everyday wine, even if lacking in the up-front fruit consumers used to fruit-forward California wines may expect.

2010 Altovinum "Evodia" Calatayud Old Vines Garnacha

Tonight I tasted a wine from Spain's Calatayud DO, in the western part of the Zaragoza province of Aragón. The area is heavily planted with Garnacha (Grenache), among other varieties. This "Evodia" is made from old vines, some as old as 100 years, according to the label. The vineyards in the area are generally at high elevations on stony soil. This particular wine was grown on slate soils. Brief tasting notes follow.

A very pretty, deep ruby red. This is a young wine, but it doesn't have the brash purple-red color of many young wines. Herbal scents on the nose--not sage, but something along those lines. Wood and vanilla. Red berries--not quite strawberries, not quite red raspberries. Red currants, perhaps? Something suggestive of bitters, or root bark. With a little time, it began to smell jammy, suggesting fig jam. Later I noticed some smoky, flinty scents. Nice, rich attack on the palate. Full, fruit sweetness. Jam, but interlaced with licorice. Remarkably sweet. Given the sweet fruitiness and the somewhat medicinal flavors of roots and bark, you might be forgiven for mistaking this for vermouth. Very light, very soft tannins. Moderate to low acidity. Immediately appealing, with seductive fruit making the wine all too easy to drink too much of, but ultimately not very well balanced. Worth trying at least once, however, if you like wines that are all fruit. This will certainly appeal to some palates. Fairly reasonably priced at $9.99 a bottle, at Whole Foods, Santa Rosa (Coddingtown Store).

Wines I'm Drinking: Six Inexpensive Wines from Spain (Jan. 2011)

Trader Joe's has quite a few inexpensive Spanish wines at the moment. I wanted to know if any of them are good values, so I picked six to taste blind. There were two stand-outs--one costing a mere $3.99, the other only $4.99. These are not great wines by any means, but they're solid everyday wines at very attractive prices. The wines I tasted were all made from Tempranillo or Garnacha (the local name for Grenache), or from a blend of the two grapes. With one exception--a Rioja wine--they were from Calatayud, Carineña, or Yecla, all south and east of Rioja (Yecla considerably to the south). The wines were very young, all from 2009, with one exception (2008). The most expensive was only $5.99. Brief tasting notes follow.

• 2008 Condesa de Sarabella Calatayud Garnacha
• 2009 La Granja 360 Cariñena Tempranillo/Garnacha
• 2009 La Granja 360 Cariñena Tempranillo
• 2009 Marques de Montaña Calatayud Garnacha
• 2009 Bodegas Darien "Darien" Rioja Tempranillo
• 2009 Terrenal Yecla Tempranillo

2008 Condesa de Sarabella Calatayud Garnacha
According to the labels, this wine and the following three were all made by the same producer, despite the different brand names. They are quite different wines, however. The Condesa de Sarabella was a medium red with a hint of garnet in it, the palest of the six wines. It had an attractive nose, suggestive of cranberries and vanilla and under-ripe plums. Later it began to suggest something smoky along with coffee, and roasted grain. Later still, the nose began to shift in the direction of leather. On the palate, the wine was rather tart, but not unappealing, although there wasn't a lot of fruit apparent at first. Despite some grainy tannins on the mid-palate, the wine overall seemed light, short, and tart. With a little time, it gained more balance. While it remained rather too sour for my taste, it at least gained some redeeming fruitiness and a little more structure after sitting for about an hour. Acceptable everyday wine and not the worst of the lot (initially this seemed fairly interesting, but over time some of the other wines opened enough to eclipse my initial impressions of this one; see below), but I probably wouldn't buy this again. Reasonably priced at $4.99 at Trader Joe's Santa Rosa.

2009 La Granja 360 Cariñena Tempranillo/Garnacha
This was my favorite wine of the group initially, by a small margin (at first, all the wines seemed rather disappointingly thin and sour), but this really improved as it got some air. By the end of the tasting (and tasting the wines again the following day), it had blossomed, acquiring tasty black cherry flavors and a depth not at first apparent. The wine was a comparatively deep blackish purple-red. It had some floral scents and hints of vanilla at first, but was less fruity on the nose than the wine above, and, although  there were some nice coffee, chocolate, and plum notes soon afterward, the wine seemed quite closed at first. Tasting the wine, it had a bright, fruity attack, and there were some attractive coffee flavors on a moderately long, slightly astringent finish. The La Granja Tempranillo/Garnacha had noticeably more body than the above wine. Again, this wine changed most dramatically with air and time in the glass. In the end, I thought it the best of the group. Light and a trifle tart, but not without some complexity. Recommended for everyday drinking. If you buy it, consider keeping a few bottles back for a couple of years. If you drink it now, decant it and let it sit at least an hour or so before you try it. Look for the bi-colored (red and black) zebra on the label. (Don't ask me.)  $4.99 at Trader Joe's.

2009 La Granja 360 Cariñena Tempranillo
Much the same as the above wine in terms of color, but rather more distant on the nose than either of the first two wines. A hint of cucumbers, perhaps? Tannic, masked fruit on the palate. Seems short, thin, and tart. Not very interesting. Slightly astringent finish. With time, the wine gained a little fruity sweetness, but ultimately seemed unacceptably light. Not recommended. This wine has a pig on the label. (Don't ask me.) $3.99 at Trader Joe's.

2009 Marques de Montaña Calatayud Garnacha
A medium to deep purple-red, this wine was fairly nondescript on the nose, but what I did detect was different from any of the other wines. The initial impression was cola, but there were also light vanilla and wood scents and something vaguely suggestive of citrus. The wine was light and quite tart on the palate, with no real grip. It was rather short and had a slightly bitter finish. Although it gained a bit of presence with some time and air exposure, it remained quite tart and seemingly insubstantial even after standing open for several hours. Not recommended. $4.99 at Trader Joe's.

2009 Bodegas Darien "Darien" Rioja Tempranillo
A medium to deep purple-red, with light berry scents on the nose. Again, quite closed at first, although there were some suggestions of wood and vanilla. Despite the rather distant nose, the wine had markedly more fruitiness on the nose than either of the above two wines, with hints of cola and chocolate as well. Moderate length with light, fine-grained tannins. With a little time and air exposure, this wine began to show some earthiness. Something about it put me in mind of roots and fresh soil. Later there were hints of chocolate. Overall, not a bad wine. Quite acceptable for everyday drinking. Although this is the most expensive of the six wines, at $5.99, it's not overpriced. Like some of the other wines in this group, I suspect this would repay a bit of cellaring, but I preferred both the La Granja 360 Tempranillo/Garnacha and the following wine.

2009 Terrenal Yecla Tempranillo
A medium-dark red with considerably less purple in it than most of the other wines. Light, floral scents. There was something perfumed about the nose. There were hints of paper, wood, and white pepper. Overall, the nose was fairly closed, but it opened up appreciably with time. Initially, the wine had some rather woody flavors, suggesting something medicinal—which is not to say unattractive. Moderate to good length and with more fruity sweetness and less acidity than most of the other wines in this group. In other words, this had rather more balance. Over time, the balance seemed to improve further, with the tannins becoming more forward, giving the wine noticeably more grip than it had at first. I enjoyed this one from the outset, and it continued to improve. Ultimately, it was my second-favorite wine of the evening. It has a rather more European flavor profile than many American wine consumers are likely to find attractive, I suspect—the tannins are more prominent, the fruit more subtle and less ripe than a typical California wine, for example—but this had a poise lacking in most of the others. Recommended for everyday drinking. Again, however, I highly recommend decanting this wine or cellaring it for a bit or it's likely to seem rather hard and ungenerous. Give it time. All of the six wines were markedly better after air exposure, lending support to the notion that inexpensive wines often benefit most from decanting. A very good value at only $3.99 at Trader Joe's.

Wines I'm Drinking: 2006 Bodegas Eguren "Mercedes Eguren" Shiraz/Tempranillo

I picked up the 2006 Bodegas Eguren "Mercedes Eguren" Shiraz/Tempranillo--a wine made in Spain's Castilla region--at Oliver's Market in Santa Rosa a few days ago, not really knowing anything about the wine. I was interested in large part because I have enjoyed a few good Shiraz wines made in this part of Spain recently and thought this one might be worth a try, although it's 50% Tempranillo. I'm glad I decided to try it. I enjoyed this and thought it reasonably priced, at $8.99 a bottle. Tasting notes follow.

The wine had a rather interesting color. It was a fairly pale medium red--not at all the inky purple-black that Shiraz wines often are. Although this is only 50% Shiraz, I still expected the wine to be darker in color. The wine didn't look especially young or old either. The nose was initially suggestive of caramel and cranberries, although rather closed at first. Later there was something of the white pepper scent Shiraz wines often have. On the palate the wine came across as fairly simple but refined and immediately appealing, with a soft, sweet fruitiness. The tannins were restrained, but the wine had enough grip to make it seem at least somewhat substantial. The tannins were delicate and integrated with a woody sweetness, mostly on the mid-palate. Good length. Sweetish, woody, delicately tannic finish. Overall, not a profound wine, but clean, well made, easy to drink, and of sufficient character to keep it interesting for more than just the first glass. Recommended for everyday drinking. 

On the Road (Europe 2010): Cardona, Spain

Yesterday spent the day in the Cardona area, visiting the main local attraction, which is the mountain of salt that first made this area prosperous. The mine in the folded mountain formation is no longer active, but you can tour part of the old works, which allows you to see some of the tunnels miners used, but, more interestingly, it allows you to see the salt formations in detail. Mining in this area goes back to neolithic times and the Romans extracted salt here as well. It wasn't until fairly recently that vertical shafts were dug into the deposit to mine it.

There are only three places in the world where salt deposits have been folded vertically into a mountain. One is in Colombia, one is in Romania, and one is here. The deposits originated in an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that once covered most of Catalonia. They are about 40 million years old. Stained with iron oxide, they are mostly shades of brown and orange, but fresh crystals of white sodium chloride (common table salt) have formed on the surface of the ancient deposits in many areas because of water seepage. There are impressive salt stalactites in places.

At least three kinds of salt are present, sodium chloride (halite), potassium-magnesium chloride, (carnalite), and another, that I've forgotten the name of that is mostly potassium chloride. The carnalite crystals were especially pretty, looking like topaz and in some places like the stone carnelian (the names share a root, of course; carne, or "meat," which is appropriate as some of the ubiquitous Spanish hams look rather like carnelian, too).

Commercial mining in the 20th century seems to have focused on extracting potassium salts. The unwanted sodium chloride was dumped next to the natural formation. In the first photo here, the ancient folded salt dome is the area of exposed cliffs. The flat area with machinery on it and the area just behind that is the dumped mine waste that is itself now being "strip mined" for sodium chloride for industrial applications. Worth a visit.

On the road (Europe 2010): Carcassonne to Berga, Spain

Spent most of yesterday looking around Carcassonne. Carcassonne is really two cities. There is a new city and the old walled city. The two are separated by a river crossed by two bridges, the Old Bridge (now for pedestrians only) and the New Bridge, reserved for vehicles. The new city looks fairly prosperous. There is a substantial railway station, several large squares, and a long, pedestrian-only shopping street with fashionable shops. But even the modern city is here and there dotted with the occasional old building, sometimes several centuries older than what surrounds it, decorated with carved stone. The old town consists mostly of old stone structures, but there is a thriving tourist trade, so many shops sell the usual post cards and souvenirs. Had a fair dinner at Le Saint Jean and a very good lunch at L'Auberge des Lices, which is very hard to find, but probably worth seeking out.

Like so many places in Europe, the old city is a layer cake of construction and destruction over the centuries. If I understand correctly, most of the lower level of the walls is Gallo-Roman, but much of that is itself built on older construction. Medieval additions were made over hundreds of years. Carcassonne fell into ruin (and was to be torn down at one point) after the border between France and the Kingdom of Aragon was moved further to the west (to the Pyrenees) and Carcassonne was no longer a border stronghold. When the ever-present Viollet-le-Duc began restoration work in the 19th century, Carcassonne appears to have been in rather poor shape. Viollet-le-Duc attempted to restore the walls to what they would have looked like at the time of King Louis IX in the 12th century, but he seems to have taken quite a few liberties. Notably, he added the pointed tops to the towers that today everyone associates with Carcassonne, but these are actually of a style common in northern France and probably were never present at Carcassonne.

The defences are impressive. Two complete walls (built at different times) ring the old town. The space in between was used for such things as military training, jousting, and the placement of catapults and trebuchets used to attack besiegers. A good trebuchet, according to something I read, could throw a 100kg rock projectile as far as 600 feet. Many sections of the stone walls have interesting brickwork incorporated into the masonry.

In the new town, I just happened to find the church of St. Vincent, about which I knew nothing in particular (or so I thought). However, an English translation of one of the pamphlets at Tourist Information mentioned that the tower of the church was one of the high points used by Delambre and Méchain in their work laying out a meridian through France during the Revolution. The tower is more than 150 feet high and from what I can see it is still one of the tallest structures anywhere in the area of Carcassonne. Cassini and his sons also used the tower for their mapmaking work. I really enjoyed seeing it just for these associations. I recommend Ken Alder's excellent book The Measure of All Things (Free Press, 2002) if you want the full story of what Delambre and Méchain were up to.

Inside, a funeral happened to be in progress. I listened to the organ for a while. The space was rather interesting. It has no side aisles (which I don't think I've ever seen before), giving the church a very broad, open look. The sides are lined with high-roofed chapels, but the impression is of a single open space. Later I read that this design is fairly typical of the southern French Gothic style.

The drive into Spain was marked by extremely twisty mountain roads--the sort that love a sports car--and a violent thunderstorm, complete with pea-sized hail. There was no border control. French wine regions announce their presence with bigger signs than the one I saw indicating the start of Spanish territory. Wildflowers were in bloom everywhere. Crossing the mountainous terrain involved two long toll tunnels that saved a great deal of time, but we arrived late in Berga. Happily, Spanish restaurants serve very late. Unhappily, we chose the hotel restaurant, which had food I'd generously describe as barely edible.

[Oddly, the best meal on the entire trip was the following night about two miles away. See this post for details.]

Wines I'm drinking: 2007 Pago Florentino Syrah (Spain)

A small triumph of modern winemaking. I recently tasted the 2007 Pago Florentino Syrah, made from grapes grown in Castilla-La Mancha, the southern half of Spain's great central plain, and part of the old Spanish kingdom of Castile (Castilla). With its vineyards mostly at high elevations (1,600-2,300 feet), La Mancha is brutally hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Traditionally, the area has made large quantities of ordinary wine sold mostly in bulk (although I have had excellent wines from Valdepeñas, one of the Denominación de Origen areas within La Mancha). Castilla-La Mancha makes something like half of Spain's wine. The most heavily planted grapes are Airén (far and away the most common) and Cencibel (the local name for Tempranillo), along with Garnacha (Grenache) and Monastrell. Airén is a white grape about which no one ever has anything good to say. It's main distinction is that it has long been the world's most planted variety in terms of acres under the vine--and entirely because so much is planted in La Mancha in vineyards with widely spaced rows. Because of Spain's connections with the New World, the ageworthy reds of that country have traditionally been aged in American oak. All of this information is a prelude to the following observation: The 2007 Pago Florentino Syrah is a non-conformist--thoroughly modern in its philosophy.

The wine is made from Syrah--widely planted around the world, but truly great in only a few places and not generally in Spain. It reaches its greatest heights in the northern Rhône valley in France (think Hermitage, Côte-Rôtie--two of my favorite wines) and in Penfold's Grange, from Australia--that's the conventional wisdom, anyway. So, the grape is "wrong," and, according to the label, the wine is aged for 30 months in French oak rather than American oak.

I'm generally not a fan of Syrah. Too often it's all fruit, with no other dimensions, especially in California and most of Australia (although I admit to relative ignorance here; because I generally don't like Syrah, I usually don't drink it). In extreme cases it can taste like grape Kool-Aid spiked with rather too much alcohol. So, buying a case of this wine on spec was out of character for me. I have to confess that I was convinced entirely by the advertising of the retailer--PJ Wine, in New York (212 567-5500)--which is also out of character. I've been on their e-mail list for about five years now, maybe longer (where has the time gone?). Have you ever made a single purchase from a catalog and then had the catalog follow you around for the rest of your life? That's what happened to me here. Years ago I bought a case of my favorite wine from Provence, Clos Milan, from PJ, as I could find it nowhere else at the time. Since then, I've been receiving their newsletter every week or so in my e-mail (not that I've minded). But something was markedly different this time. The text describing the wine had a palpable enthusiasm I'd never seen before. The buyer admitted to a prejudice against Spanish Syrah and said he had tasted it with great skepticism. But he liked it so much that PJ ended up taking the entire vintage, and it is now the only place this wine is available. My shipment arrived a few days ago. Last night I decided to open a bottle. Had I wasted my money? I was expecting to be disappointed.

They say honesty is the best policy. Although I've come to the conclusion in the past couple years that Mark Twain was right when he said that that isn't always true, honesty is called for here. I was a little disappointed. I wanted this to be truly great wine, and it isn't. Having said that, it is a very good wine--a very good wine, indeed. I don't regret buying a case of it. In fact, I recommend you do the same thing.

It was a limpid, strawberry jam red--not the inky purple that Syrah often is. It had a perfume-like nose at first, but the floral scents blew off fairly quickly to reveal cherries and suggestions of tobacco. With a little time in the glass, I began to detect blueberries, bacon, cinnamon, smoke, and even some citrus scents. The blueberry was intriguing because it immediately put me in mind of the Penfold's Grange.

The taste of a wine is difficult to describe at the best of times. Blueberries were again present, but, as the wine opened up, I began to detect strong hints of licorice and citrus. What was perhaps most remarkable was the wonderful balance. This is what wine writers talk about when they say a wine is "elegant." "Poised" is the word that kept coming to my mind. The 2007 Pago Florentino Syrah is excellently balanced between restrained fruit, moderate tannins, and soft acidity. What keeps it from being truly great is that the fruit is a trifle too restrained. The wine is a trifle too light in body. It doesn't have quite the grip I would have liked. Despite very good length, it is not as long as it might be. Yet, these are all relatives. I reiterate: This is a very tasty wine. While I'm fairly certain it won't appeal to palates used to powerfully ripe California-style Syrah, it should appeal to anyone who appreciates a somewhat more restrained European flavor profile. All in all, a very pretty wine that I look forward to sampling repeatedly over the course of the next five to seven years.

Finally, the bottle is extraordinary. The package is irrelevant if the wine is poor, but a nice package is always...nice. The 2007 Pago Florentino Syrah comes in what is the most substantial still wine bottle I've ever encountered. The punt is deep enough to take the entire length of my middle finger. With three inches of wine still in the bottle, a round glass island floats above the level of the liquid (the tip of the punt sticking up inside the bottle). The label, silver embossed on black, is adorned with a pair of deer with grape vines growing from their antlers. All this adds to the pleasure. No, I don't regret buying a case at all.  Highly recommended. $17.99 a bottle, at PJ Wine, New York--which is an excellent price for a wine of this caliber.

[For the record, I have no connections of any kind with PJ Wine except as an occasional customer.]