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For an in-depth look at starting up your very own vineyard, check out Vineyard Owner. It's still a work in progress, but it currently sports some nice articles on Disease and Pest Management, and Climate factors.
Disclosure: This bottle was sent to The Wine Cask Blog compliments of Stilletto Entertainment for review.
Tasting notes:
Nose of fresh peaches and citrus notes
Acidic core with citrus and chalk on the palate
Finish of pear and nicely tapering mineral layers.
I usually cringe at seeing celebrities or entertainers on wine labels- and there are plenty of them. When I received this bottle with the description of the iconic Barry Manilow brand on the back label, I thought of all the "Fanilows" that this wine will appeal to. I didn't think it would also appeal to me.
I never would have reached for this wine in a shop, but I quickly learned once again not to judge a book by its cover. This is a nicely crafted Pinot Grigio with a very desirable combination of fruit, acidity, and minerality. A sampling of prices puts this wine at $15 or so. Raise a glass!
The wine world is chock full of gadgets these days and this is one of the funniest I have seen in such a while. A physician by trade, Patrick Farrell claims that he has an invention that will improve the quality of a wine simply by pouring wine into a glass. Let me explain?
He has created a device that will fit around the neck of a bottle that uses magnets to enhance the wine.
Farrell started out tying magnets to the neck of a bottle at the urging of business acquaintances who were distributing magnets to try to improve water quality. At the time, he thought the chance magnets would work on wine was ?about the same as seeing pigs fly.? But, he says, ?I took the thing home, put it on a bottle of shiraz from Australia and was shocked to see it made it taste smoother and fruitier. So then I went down to my cellar and I got a bottle of Bordeaux from the Medoc and it made it taste softer and fruitier.? Eventually, he came up with a molded plastic device that looks like a regular non-drip pourer and has an air hole to speed up oxygenation. That intensifies the effect of the wizard and differentiates it from other magnetic devices on the market such as The Wine Clip, which clasps around the bottle neck, says Farrell. Um?magnets?? I guessing the pourer at the top actually aerates the wine and that?s what softens the wine as opposed to the magnets. But let?s see what the critics have to say.
?Testimonials are irrelevant. Tastings are not proof,? says Ball, a professor at Cleveland State University, and ?amateur wine snob,? who says magnetic fields aren?t strong enough to change the shape of tannins. ?All that magnetic field is doing is separating you from your money,? says Ball, who won?t be trying the Bev Wizard any time soon. Awesome! At $30 for the gadget you?re better off buying a $5 corkscrew and a $25 bottle of wine!!
This really promises to be a cool event. I hope to see some of you there.
Seven North Carolina breweries - including all five from Buncombe County - are teaming up this month to host a Slow Food beer-tasting event at the downtown Asheville Brewing Company, 77 Coxe Ave. Slow Food is an international group that works to preserve food traditions and sustainable agriculture. Proceeds from the beer tasting will be used to send local delegates to the Slow Food Terra Madre gathering, Oct. 26-30 in Turin, Italy. The tasting, at 5 p.m. Aug. 27, will feature beers each from Asheville Brewing, Highland Brewing, Pisgah Brewing, French Broad Brewing, Green Man Brewing (all from the Asheville area) Catawba Brewing of Glen Alpine and Foothills Brewing of Winston-Salem. Each brewery will have at least two beers at the event, and Asheville Brewing will likely serve all of their ales, said brewmaster Doug Riley. Beers will be served in four-ounce samples, and the evening includes pizza. Tickets are $20, on sale now at Asheville Brewing and its sister operation, Asheville Pizza and Brewing, 675 Merrimon Ave. http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060809/NEWS01/60809012/1119
So, things have been really hectic at work and with dial up access only (and limited at that) blogging is very difficult. Anywho I am not giving up on it, just lagging behind. I expect the next post to be on Sunday unless the heavens open up and smile upon me. Tomorrow I am going to a Highland Beer dinner at Ganache so I'll post the deets then. Lay-tah!! Cheers!
[07/23/2006, 04:23]
An Argentine glacier moves back There is in danger the productive region that Argentina and Chile share
A glacier of Argentina, the Upsala, in the southern province of Santa Cruz, moved back almost 13,5 kilometres between 1928 and last year, according to analysis of organizations that study the environment. In 20 years there would be serious problems for the production.
For graficar the process of deterioration of the mass of ice, a photo took from the same place of the one that was taken an image of the glacier in 1928. To simple sight is observed that most of the ice already is not.
The scientists who study the phenomenon of the melting it attribute to the increase of the temperature average of the planet, due to the use of fossil fuels as the petrol and other derivatives of the petrol.
The organizations environmentalists claim Argentina and Chile that political decisions take, since the melting does not affect only the Upsala, but all the big glaciers of the south of the continent.
Also they demand that countries like The United States and Russia, they sign and put into practice Kyoto's Protocol, which almost 120 countries resolved in 1997 to reduce the emission of the gases that raise the temperature of the planet.
These organizations that study the environment demonstrated besides the fact that in some zones of the mountain chain of the Andes, in the frontier zone between Chile and Argentina, also the volume of the glaciers is diminishing. According to experts of the United Nations, if measurements are not taken to reduce the global warming, the glaciers will disappear in 20 years, which will provoke big problems for the productive activities.
Source: Simbolo. Net (# 52) Buenos Aires - Argentina
Clos Henri is a relatively new entrant to the Wairau valley of the Marlborough wine growing region. This property is also located close to Renwick and is actually opened by the Bourgeois family from the Sancerre region in France. The first vines were planted in 2001 with emphasis on bringing out the terroir. There are a multitudes of soils here but they essentially are either clay based or rocky riverbed. Their "Bel Echo" offerings of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir show definite minerality and bely the rocky riverbed soil which it was planted on. The "Clos Henri" series on the other hand definitely is more earthy, rich and deep being planted on predominantly clay. Of all the wines tasted in this region - these wines strike me as the most "terroir transparent" I have tried so far.
Their vine planting densities are some of the highest around here of around 5000 vines per hectare. I have high hopes for this property in the future as their vines begin to acquire age and more experience is gained each year on the boundaries of each specific "terroir".
There is definite potential here for these wines - give the vines some age, more experience with the soil and LOWER YIELDS. If there is one sticking point it's the yields which tend to be on the higher end. At ~50 Hl/Ha, this is just too high to produce anythng worthy of the "ultra-premium" status and certainly world class. To get there, we are going to have to drop fruit yields by 30% or more so let's watch this space - it's a great start.
2006 Muga Roija Blanco $12.99 Wine label said: Nothing much… it’s barrel fermented and imported by Jorge Ordonez. Whoopdeedoo. Vineyard66 says: As I am still researching Spanish wines, I’ve noticed that my good friend Bill from California has been spouting off about Muga Roija. Of course, he was speaking about the red wines the area is famous for. I [...]
Amazon.com, the online purveyor of books, apparel, and just about everything else, has announced its plans to enter the wine sales business. Beginning as early as mid-October, the online retailer will offer a selection of more than 300 wines from all over the United States to customers in 26 states. The company indicates that the selection will represent a wide cross-section of US producers, not just wineries in California, Oregon, and Washington State.
Shipping and taxes, as ever with online wine sales, will likely be an issue. Amazon says that customers of the Amazon Prime service (which carries a $79 annual fee) will get free shipping. Still, it's an intriguing development.
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Wine Magazine have announced their 2007 WINE Classification (South Africa) - the fourth since first published in 2004.
It basically identifies South African wines and cellars with the best track records in terms of consistently good reviews in WINE magazine panel tastings conducted blind (without sight of the labels) over the previous five years.
If anything it gives you an idea of what to look out for in the respective categories when you're in the shops and/or which estates may be worth visiting.
But what did this family drink? On offer was the internationally exported Tsingtao beer from another famed coastal city, Qingdao. The spelling ?Tsingtao? is from the Wades-Giles system of representing the sounds of Chinese characters (now defunct); but some Chinese brands/institutions like to state their age by using the early 20th Century romanized spelling replaced by pinyin after 1949 and the foundation of the PRC (the pinyin is ?Qingdao?, pronounced ?ching-dow? for English speakers). There was also Chinese peach juice and the inescapable bai jiu, literally ?white alcohol?, a category of spirits distilled from sorghum or millet which can range in flavour from delicate aniseed to rotting garbage (I don?t know how they quite manage that or what kind of ?still? bai jiu is actually distilled in).
We?d brought a bag of gifts with us ? never go to a Chinese family without bringing something ? which included a bottle of 2007 Lo Tengo Torrontes from Norton (from importer ASC). Torrontes is an Argentinian, highly aromatic grape (a bit like a cross between Muscat and Gewurztraminer with an oily and slightly bitter aftertaste) which, in our experience, has appealed to Chinese wine drinkers. But the Chinese never open gifts in front of people and it would have been rude to suggest chilling it. So we got talking about wine instead, over beer, peach juice and bai jiu.
Bai jiu is fairly evil in more than one respect. Although the northern Chinese like to drink it with seafood and just about anything, its very name has clouded the existence of white wine. Red wine is popularly known as hong jiu (literally ?red alcohol?), but its correct, full name is hong putao jiu (?red grape alcohol?). Because the Chinese know bai jiu as ?white alcohol? and red wine as hong jiu, many are unaware that white wine, whose correct name is bai putao jiu (?white grape alcohol?), even exists. And, as we discovered in trying to find a wine shop in downtown Dalian, not everyone even knows that the lauded hong jiu ? the short-hand for red wine ? is made from grapes. Asking for a local shop selling putao jiu (wine in general), one security guard assured us there was nothing like that in the area, but there was a shop selling hong jiu! When Fongyee qualified ?hong putao jiu?, the guard looked even more perplexed. But there?s nothing in the phrase hong jiu that mentions grapes, of course.
Over the prawn soup, we talked about wine. Many Chinese, although they buy Chinese wines for patriotic reasons, are suspicious of the bigger brands: Great Wall, Changyu, Dynasty etc.
Their suspicions were not allayed when we revealed the big brands blend Chinese wine with imported must (whenever another country, say Spain or Chile, has a surplus); but they were interested in Grace Vineyard and Dragon Seal as producers using exclusively Chinese grapes. The older generation like their beer and bai jiu and find wine?s acidity and the tannins in red wine to be a bit unpleasant; although many older Chinese feel they should be drinking red wine for health reasons. The younger generation ? in this case Fongyee?s 34 year-old cousin who works in real-estate and her husband, a tennis instructor ? does drink wine, but there is not much of a wine-bar scene in Dalian, outside the five-star hotels.
We knew already about Dalian-based French importer DCT Wines, run by Frederic Choux. In addition, we found an intriguing wine-bar and shop called AP Wines in a local shopping mall.
The Dalian owner spoke English and explained the wines he was importing directly. It took a while to realize that the name AP came from Australian producer, Andrew Peace, whose wines dominated the shop?s selection. All in all these looked pretty pricey by Beijing standards (e.g. well over 300RMB for a generic Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon) and the place had only been open a year, so perhaps business was tough. The owner didn?t let on, but was on the ball, offering a glass of 2006 Master Peace Shiraz, Andrew Peace which he apologized was a bit cold to drink as it had been stored in the fridge (at least they were trying to preserve opened bottles somehow). AP Wines did have a few wines from France and Germany besides the Andrew Peace range. But we thought we?d shake things up a bit with our Chinese relatives by purchasing a tetra-pak, one-litre bottle of non-vintage Andrew Peace Chardonnay for next day?s feast.
I say shake things because in a young wine market like China?s traditional packaging, cork closures and red wines generally reign supreme, even although most Chinese palates prefer lighter reds with generally low tannins (e.g. from wines made from grapes like Gamay or Pinot Noir) or whites with some residual sugar. So we?d deliberately chosen a wine under cork as a gift, albeit the plastic cork of the above Lo Tengo Torrontes before arriving in Dalian. Now, here we were a) bringing white wine to the table, b) choosing a wine in a one-litre format not standard 75 cl bottle and c) purchasing something in less than ?classy? packaging. We could ?keep face? doing this only because of our professional work and knowledge of international wines. As a result everyone in the family tried the Aussie Chardonnay and ostensibly liked it. But it was Fongyee?s younger cousins who actually drank most of the tetra-pak, saying how well the wine went with the beautiful Dalian clams on offer.
So let?s explode a few myths and report on what we learned or confirmed: it is not correct to say the Chinese struggle to drink alcohol, even wine, or are blind to trying new things (we hear a lot of importers here who insist the Chinese will only try certain types of wine ? ignore them. It?s more a matter of education all round). The only Chinese who don?t drink much tend to be Cantonese. They lack alcohol dehydrogenase, the enzyme that processes alcohol ? hence the pink-in-the-face routine after half a glass. These ?wine drinkers? should try Moscato d?Asti or another low-alcohol wine with decent residual sugar and pleasant, easy-to-like aromas. Northern Chinese drink like the Russians and Koreans: don?t take them on, particularly with bai jiu. The older generation are unlikely to be great wine buyers, unless they are highly affluent. It?s China younger drinkers who are coming to Western brands in all forms. Where wine may have the edge, though, is that it is perceived to be healthier than spirits. White wine may not be well-known, but younger drinkers will try just about anything and choosing and drinking international wines has social cachet.
The Dalian wine-lists we saw ? in our hotel and a few restaurants ? were dominated by the more significant importers here, particularly ASC and Torres China. But the wine scene is very young. However, there?s certainly a fair bit of cash knocking around this popular Chinese city with massive building developments and the predictable run of black S-Class Mercedes ducking between scooters and vehicles of all other descriptions.
On our final day, we visited a local Buddhist temple and monastery. From a distance, this countryside retreat could have dated from the Ming or Qing Dynasties. But as we came up close, it looked newer and newer, in fact, very new! (Not that this necessarily meant it was new. Beijing?s Ming Dynasty Forbidden City is, for example, under constant restoration and re-painting). But this place was genuinely young. A group of wealthy Buddhists had built the entire thing from scratch as recently as 2004. As we thought about this massive undertaking, we wondered if the Chinese Buddhists in question ? generally, more laid back than their Japanese Zen or Lamaist Tibetan counterparts ? were also buying wine for their festivals and holidays. Judging by the SUVs and luxury cars lining the car-park of this working temple, many of these Chinese Buddhists could certainly afford to buy wine and perhaps a few of them are.
Cheers,
Edward Ragg
Edward Ragg & Fongyee Walker write for us from Beijing, and you can get more information on their website, Dragon Phoenix Fine Wine Consulting
I think this is a Rousan and Marsan blend, Quite light in flavor, mildly floral, honey, a bit of melon, mild acid but still has a bit of crisp, The acid comes in on the finish, maybe a bit of lime and then the finish hangs on for a while with a bit of dried fruit and I also get a bit of pear. I got this on a killer close out from the all great Kermit Lynch. I have several more whites that I will be tasting over the next few day's.
Created by Jim Henson, this made-for-tv movie broke new ground. It aired in 1969 on NBC?s Experiment in Television, a one-hour, commercial-free show that ran on Sunday afternoons and featured drama, comedy, and documentaries peppered with such personalities as Frank Langella, Nanette Fabray, Fritz Weaver, Bernadette Peters, Verna Bloom, Frank McHugh, Jack Gilford, Nancy Walker, David Steinberg, Mildred Dunnock, Donald Pleasance, Richard Briers, John Gielgud, George Plimpton, Christopher Plummer and Diana Rigg. Documentaries featured people like Marshall McLuhan, Frederico Fellini, Arthur Penn, Al Capp and the Beatles.
Where in the wine world was this picture taken? If you’ve found this hard in previous editions, now you have a greater chance since there are two right answers!
According to the photographer, the small road down the middle of the vineyard is actually the line between two significant wine regions. So where is this border zone? Hit the comments with your thoughts! No prizes this time, just glory!
I had an excellent California Pinot Noir last week at 1 restaurant in West Hollywood on the recommendation of the sommelier, Rory Harrington. The 2005 Ambullneo Vineyards Pinot Noir Santa Maria Valley was rich and luscious, with loads of ripe strawberry, light earth character and hints of smoky oak.
A few days after meeting the owner while judging a church BBQ contest, I stopped by Forest Hill Wine Merchants out near Collierville at Forest Hill Irene and Poplar. Unlike most wine shops, it's arranged by body and color, not by region. So you start on the left with light Pinot Grigios and work your way around the store to full-strength Zinfandels. Also appreciated is a section set up with recommendations for chicken, pork, beef, etc.
Right between the dry rosés and the Pinot Noirs, I found the 2006 Rémy Pannier Chinon from the Loire Valley of France. $15, 12% abv, 100% Cabernet Franc (though the locals call it Cabernet Breton). Faint berry aromas and light bodied with a tart raspberry profile. I love Loire wines and they're usually a great bargain--you may just have to spend some extra time asking questions or reading labels closely.
I served this with a big veal rib chop and an orzo stuffed bell pepper. A splash of apple cider reduction sauce and a dab of salted butter went on the chop before serving. The lighter body of the Chinon married well with the mild veal and cider sauce. It was easier to cook and more tender than a similar cut of pork but not as full of flavor as a beef ribeye. This cut can be pricey, but it's worth it for the occasional decadent treat. And if you can ever find it, the veal equivalent of a Porterhouse is wonderful. Enjoying this meat properly cooked on the bone is a whole other world than cafeteria-style Weinerschnitzel or scallopini.
Every year TigullioVino.it, Italy?s foremost wine portal, organizes a wine Meeting, a table-top event bringing together over one hundred winemakers hand picked from Italy and Europe. This year?s edition, with some influence from yours truly, is called Terroir Vino, and was held at the magnificent Palazzo Ducale in Genova. The Palazzo Ducale, photo by Luca Risso Terroir Vino is the brainchild of my friend, web entrepreneur Fil Ronco. Participants are invited after selection in a blind tasting by TigullioVino teams, and so you get a wide spectrum of styles and sizes of winery, from the ?all natural? vigneron with less than 4 hectares, to large quality producers like Lungarotti. Half the day is reserved for wine professionals (press, restaurant owners, importers), and starting mid-afternoon the event is open to the public for a nominal fee. The setting under the gold leaf carved ceilings of the doge?s palace, the perfect organization and the friendly atmosphere made this Terroir Vino day a big success. It was good to see lots of blogging and newsgroup friends, including Joan Gómez Pallarès, Terry Hughes, Luca Risso, Giampiero Nadali, Schigi, Filippo Cintolesi, Franco Solari, Fiorenzo Sartore, Mirco Mariotti, Gianpaolo Paglia, even Slow Food friends Enrico Sala and Maurizio Fava. All in all 1500 people attended.
I attended a Camacho cigar tasting at Cigar Depot out at Poplar and Forest Hill Irene. A cigar tasting is somewhat different from a wine tasting. I can generally try about 25 wines before my palate shuts down, but what on earth are you supposed to do for a cigar tasting? Pass around a few stogies to let everyone try various blends?
It's a lot simpler and a lot more relaxed than that. A representative from the cigar company shows up with a sampler box and hands out cigars to whomever is in the shop. I got a free Camacho SLR Natural Corona that I enjoyed in store, hanging out with a couple of guys and watching the ups and downs of the market on CNBC. I spoke to the rep a few times, and purchased a Camacho Corojo 10th Anniversary cigar on the way out. It's a 6"/60 ring gauge monster made out of fine Honduran tobacco. Despite the huge size (and box press shape, which flattens it into a sort of rectangle cross section), it was a smooth and cool smoke with cherry and black tea notes to it. I enjoyed it on a lovely crisp Saturday evening with a glass of Penfolds Club Port.
The 10th Anniversary Camacho is pictured on my friend Paul's copy of The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford, a great companion work to Freakonomics if you enjoy that sort of unorthodox viewpoint of how money moves around the economy.
Wine Blogging Wednesday rolls around again with a theme from Russ, the Wine Hiker, of “Which wine, which wilderness.” Sounds pretty straightforward… which wine would you bring on a hike near where you live. The only problem is, I don’t hike.
It’s not that I don’t like hiking, I do, but rarely get on the trail these days here in Minnesota. I like walking and it is my exercise of choice but it’s usually done in my suburban neighborhood or around one of the many lakes in the Twin Cities. Rarely have I ventured up north to where the real action is here in the land of 10,000 lakes.
But this theme not only got me to think about where I might hike but also which wine I might take on the journey. Since I’m one to pack lightly, I chose a wine I could enjoy without a corkscrew. That left every wine made here in Minnesota behind but there were several choices left on the shelf. I also assumed I would bring simple water glasses or metal cups and not the usual Riedel stems on my hike so the choice should be something hearty. This got me thinking of the wines of Italy which are often consumed in humble glassware. Alas, I was not able to find a wine in screwcap or other non-corkscrew closure from Italy but my friends in California did not disappoint.
Since part of the task was to match this wine with a hike, I consulted Google to select one of the top 10 hikes in the country right in my backyard, the Superior Hiking Trail. This trail covers over 200 miles from Two Harbors, MN — near Duluth — to the Canadian border. The north shore of Lake Superior is some of the most beautiful country you are likely to see and this time of year it’s awesome due to our long Indian summer and fall colors. At some point, I will make this hike and might just bring along the wine I picked up for the journey, Hey Mambo.
This is one of those “marketing wines” from Don Sebastiani and Sons which I’ve been meaning to try anyway. Great label, interesting premise and the Zork closure all for $12.99. I was also intrigued by the blend of Barbera, Zinfandel, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Carignane and Alicante Bouschet which I thought would be a good choice for my water glass/cup scenario. So I was looking forward to what might be in the glass tonight.
Tasting Notes:
The Other Guys, “Hey Mambo”, Sultry Red 2006 ($13) - Dark purple in color with aromas of blackberry, cranberry, fennel and sage. Bright and juicy in the mouth with blackberry, red cherry, bell pepper and vanilla finishing with moderate tannins. An interesting and satisfying blend in an nice package.
Thanks to Russ for a great theme this time… It will be good to see him again at the upcoming Wine Blogger Conference later this month. Look for the next theme to be announced soon.
For those who have been following the ongoing Japanese Manga Series you know what I'm talking about. Well, I was a bit frustrated trying to find a convenient place to keep track of the "12 disciples" appearing in the series ( 5 have shown themselves so far) - s0 hear it is. Will update this as they appear. In the meantime here you go!
1. 2001 - George Roumier Chambolle Musigny Amoureuses
2. 1999 - Chateau Palmer
3. 2000 - Domaine Pegau Cuvee de Capo
4. 1994 - Chateau Lafleur
5. 2000 - Michell Colin Deleger - Chevalier Montrachet
There's something really cool about seeing a young winery start to hit its stride. I've only seen a few newborn calves and foals in their first moments after birth as they learn to use their spindly legs, but it's hard not to feel a sense of pride when after a few minutes, they go galloping around in circles.
I was first introduced to Gargiulo Vineyards at a wine bar in San Francisco a couple of years ago. I just happened to stop by for a drink, and April Gargiulo was on hand, pouring what was then her family's second release to a hip crowd of San Francisco wine lovers. At the time, I wasn't blown away by the wines -- they were somewhat awkward, and didn't fully hang together -- but April seemed very serious about what they were doing. It was also clear that the family had made a serious investment in their vineyards in the heart of Oakville, so I've been keeping tabs on the winery over the last few years, and watched them go from their awkward first steps in the market to where they are now, a consistently excellent producer.
Gargiulo Vineyards was started in 1992 when Jeff Gargiulo and his wife Valerie purchased a 40 acre vineyard in Oakville called Money Road Ranch. Like many of the new vineyards owners in Napa, the Gargiulos come to their new occupation by way of a lifelong dream. Jeff has worked in the agricultural business his whole life, but always thought that one day he might have an opportunity to merge his own love of wine with his work on the business side of agriculture. It was only a matter of time before the right property came along, and suddenly the Gargiulos were in the vineyard business.
The first task of that new occupation was the replanting and re-engineering of the vineyard, with new rootstocks and planting grids and trellis systems, a process which took three years. The resulting vineyard is mostly Merlot, with smaller amounts of Cabernet, Sangiovese, and Pinot Grigio.
The vines weren't ready for prime time for another four years, and for the first couple of years after that, the Gargiulos sold their fruit to local producers while they fine tuned their operations. In that time the family purchased another piece of property at Oakville crossroads, sandwiched in between Rudd and Screaming Eagle. Needless to say, it's a prime piece of real estate, and one of the few south-facing sloped vineyards in the Oakville appellation. The Gargiulo's named this vineyard OVX, and planted it with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petite Verdot.
In 2000 the family felt ready to produce their own wines from the Money Road Ranch vineyard, and have slowly ramped up production, as they build their own winery facility which is due to open this fall. Starting in 2004, the family also began harvesting and bottling wine from the OVX vineyard, the potential of which is perhaps best captured in this bottle of wine.
Made up of 86% Cabernet Sauvignon; 5% Merlot, 5 % Cabernet Franc, 4% Petite Verdot, the wine can legally be called a Cabernet, and is indeed labeled as such, but it drinks more like the Bordeaux-style blend that it is. This is the inaugural vintage for this particular single vineyard bottling, which looks to be slated to become the winery's flagship wine. Only 250 cases will be made each year.
Named after a favorite jazz chord, the wine is made by the estate's winemaker Kristof Anderson who has been with Gargiulo since 2003. Kristof's resume includes stints as winemaker at Lewis Cellars, Del Dotto, and at Saddleback Cellars.
The G Major Seven Study is made from the best blocks of each grape variety in the family's OVX vineyard. The entire vineyard is farmed with deficit irrigation and a combination of sustainable soil management practices and organic farming, and these blocks yield approximately two and a half tons of fruit per acre. The wine spends 19 months in French oak (90% new) before bottling.
This is the finest wine I have tasted from Gargiulo, but based on this single bottle, I expect to taste many more.
Full disclosure: I received these wines as a press sample
Tasting Notes: Inky garnet in the glass, this wine has a nose of cherry, tobacco, and earth aromas singed with a hint of burnt vanilla. In the mouth it is smooth, full, and rich with spicy sandalwood and cherry flavors that are propped up by deeper n
Tecnorati
Since part of the task was to match this wine with a hike, I consulted Google to select one of the top 10 hikes in the country right in my backyard, the 