Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Mel & Rose Wine Tasting

Went to a wine tasting at Mel & Rose wine shop. I bought some of the first three and skipped the others. Wines Bought Gargiulo Vineyards Money Road Ranch Pinot Grigio (Napa Valley) 2003: Excellent white wine. Strong nose and very tasty flavors of pears, herbs, and green tea. Crisp acidity makes it a great food wine or just for sipping. (Brian Leiter would like this one.) Grade: B Dynamite Vineyards Merlot (North Coast) 2001: Great nose of blueberry, blackberry. On the palate it's very fruity, with chocolate, cherries, and red raspberries. It's still pretty tannic and needs a little time to integrate. Grade: B Twenty Bench Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley) 2002: Second wine of Regusi. Good dark fruits with classic cabernet flavors, but is very young and quite tannic. Needs time to pull everything together. Grade: B Wines not Bought Wild Horse Chardonnay (Central Coast) 2002: Clean and typical nose. Relatively quaffable for California chardonnay. Moderate oak and good acidity. Round and full oaky vanilla and pears. Angeline Pinot Noir (Carneros) 2002: Second wine of Martin Ray. Vegetal rather than fruity. Modest albeit clean pinot flavor profile. Not recommended. Grade: D J. Garcia Zinfandel (Sonoma County) 2001: From Clos du Bois; named after Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Gritty tannins over modest blackberry and spice. Odd chemical nose. Not recommended. Grade: E Roederer Estate sparkling wine (California) NV: Apples and tart citric aromas and flavors. Lightly oaked. Short finish. Not recommended. Grade: C San Simeon Petit Sirah (Paso Robles) 2000: A chocolate covered sour cherry from a Whitman's sampler. Grade: D+

San Felice Chianti Classico (Tuscany) 2001

Crisp acidity and clean fruity make this straightforward and uncomplicated Chianti easy to drink. Modest but classic flavors of berries, sour cherries, and earthy minerals. Good pizza wine. Grade: B-

Edna Valley Chardonnay Paragon (San Luis Obispo) 2002

More restrained than most mid-range California chardonnays, this tasy wine is dominated by peaches and apples, with a streak of mulling spices. Pronounced acidity gives the wine a sharp focus. Oaky finish. At $15 I'd take a pass, but if you can find it at around $12 grab it. Grade: B-

Saintsbury Pinot Noir (Carneros) 2001

Saintsbury used to be one of my favorite pinot noir houses, but lately I've had a run of bad luck with their wines. A couple of bottles were clearly cooked; one even was going through a second fermentation in bottle. (I should note that at least some fo these problems could have been caused by overheating or other abuses during the shipping process.) This sample had no obvious faults, but was uninspiring anyway. Jammy blackberry and strawberry flavors and aromas. The finish has a strong sour cherry note that I found rather unpleasant. Drinkable but not recommended. Grade: C-

Justin Syrah (Paso Robles) 2001

Wow. A yummy example of what syrah can achieve in California. Smooth and well-rounded tannins frame blackberries, black cherries, minerals, and a lot of toasty oak. Not a wine for the cellar, but highly recommended for drinking right now. Grade: A-

Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Brut (Champagne) NV

Very fine bubbles in an attractive yellow-gold wine. Lovely nose of clean fruit and yeasty bread. The palate follows the nose, with tasty notes of pear, citrus and buttered toast. Lingering finish. Strong buy recommendation. Grade: B+

Wine glasses

Having the right wine glasses may not be quite as important as having the right eye glasses, but it's a close second in my book. LA Times (reg. req'd) wine writer David Shaw apparently agrees:

[G]ood wine tastes better in good wineglasses — glasses with thin lips and properly shaped bowls. I know this from personal experience as well as from attending formal, blind-tasting seminars. It has been repeatedly demonstrated to me at these seminars not only that wine in, say, a glass from Riedel tastes better than wine in a clunky water tumbler but that Pinot Noir tastes better in a fine glass designed for Pinot Noir than it does in an equally fine glass designed for Cabernet.

But which glasses to buy? Here again Shaw and I are in one accord:

I began noticing several years ago ... that Riedel — which then made most of the best glasses used in most of the best restaurants — was being supplanted by a newcomer: Spiegelau. When I asked around, I found out that while most folks didn't think Spiegelau glasses were quite as attractive as Riedel's, there were two reasons for Spiegelau's inroads: Their glasses are much cheaper. Their glasses don't break as easily as Riedel's.

"It's like the difference between Ferrari and Mercedes," says Wolfgang Puck of Spago. "Ferrari may be the better car, but the Ferrari breaks a lot easier. I'll take the Mercedes."

Actually, I'd take a BMW, but that's another story entirely. A while back I picked up a set of Spiegelau's Vino Grande Burgundy wine glasses, which had been recommended by the WSJ's wine columnist. As I noted in an earlier post, I've been very happy with them and use them as an everyday glass for most red wines. Recently, however, I picked up a set of Spiegelau's Vino Grande Magnum Bordeaux glasses, which I like even better for cabernet and claret. It does seem to be true that certain glass shapes accentuate different qualities of wine. Certain shapes also release more aromatics by swirling. Spiegelau provides a very nice alternative to the price and hype of Riedel.

Edna Valley Syrah (Central Coast) 2002

A thin layer of basic Syrah flavors and aromas over a bed of odd medicinal/industrial tastes. Not recommended. Grade: D