Coffee Like Wine

Ethiopia Mordecofe Natural Process

2009-12-20T08:57:00.000-08:00

It seems like Four Barrel is really hitting its stride when it comes to roasting fresh coffee beans. I am currently enjoying their Ethiopia Mordecofe Natural Process and it's showing wonderful blueberry and apricot notes and a striking citrus-like acidity. In the past, their coffees seemed tired and roasted at levels that didn't fully show their best flavors.

Natural process means the coffee cherry fruit was left attached to the bean (as opposed to being removed as is more typical in the washed process) and as a result, the coffee has more funky fruit flavors that might have been gone otherwise. Though interestingly enough, the acidity remains, which tends to be muted when made in this manor.

So far I've prepared this coffee in an inverted aeropress, french press, and in espresso form. My only attempt at pulling this coffee was a failure, I choked my poor Gaggia, requiring 56 seconds to get maybe half the amount of a single shot. So I'll retry that soon and figure out how to properly dial this thing in (still, the espresso I got tasted great with steamed milk - the blueberry flavor shown through like a spotlight in fog). I liked this as a french press, but overall the flavors seemed muted a bit. The inverted aeropress version I'm drinking this morning is the best preparation so far - bright acidity, wonderfully sharp flavors, and a nice clean cup.

Priced at $13, Four Barrel describes this coffee's taste as "Intense strawberry throughout, blueberry and apricot jam, passion fruit, apricot, and vanilla cookie."

Robert Stemmler 2006 Estate Pinot Noir Carnaros

2009-12-15T20:52:00.000-08:00

Picked up this wine from Wine.com's shop in Berkeley for $19.99, down from it's original $36. Wasn't entirely certain this would be a good offering given my poor track record with sub-$20 pinots, but the label was
beautiful, the producer was one I thought I'd heard of being good, and the
in-store write up didn't mention "a touch of wood" in the tasting notes like the
other wine I was considering (whenever I see that I shudder because it usually
means the wine is over oaked).

When I got home and looked up what the producer had to say about the 2006 growing season, it bothered the crap out of me. The problems with the season seemed biblical in nature - flooding, "brutal" hot weather, and an overabundant crop that was picked late in the season caused me to think the wine would be thin and taste like raisin-flavored vodka.

Lucky for me, the wine was excellent, displaying an earthy nose with petrol and
cherry notes, which echoed in the glass. There was hints of black liquorish
on the finish. The winery did a good job of "aggressive" green pruning, so that the remaining berries were able to display great flavor and not the watered down taste I expected.

I really liked this wine and think it's a great deal for under $20.

Four Barrel Ethiopia Sidamo Mordecofe

2009-11-28T08:46:00.000-08:00

My appreciation for Four Barrel Coffee continues to climb the more I visit their shop on Valencia and 16th St. in San Francisco. Initially wowed by the atmosphere, machinery and great minds behind the shop's concept during my first visit in August 2008, subsequent trips have left me disappointed with the quality of the beans that I bought to brew at home. While the desserts are fantastic (chocolate and salt donut=yum) and in cafe espresso-based drinks are nice, some of the beans just seemed tired, over-roasted or plain boring.

But I'm an optimist. So I went back and picked up a bag of the Ethiopia Sidamo Mordecofe, which was roasted on Nov. 9. The coffee, priced at $12.50, is organic and direct trade. Four Barrel's tasting notes described it as: "A clean tea-like body, with bergamot aroma, notes of raspberry lemonade, and a peachy acidity."

I was really impressed with this bag. Showing best in a pour over, I definitely found it to have a tea-like flavor, followed by blueberries, some floral and earthy components, and a finish that hinted of oranges and a bit of lavender. Wonderful coffee and great price, definitely worth picking up.

Il Barbaresco 1997

2009-11-27T14:57:00.000-08:00

This is a weird one. I walked into a small, sort of dingy shop in Oakland where I had heard there were many good microbrews. I was looking to stock up on some odd and unique beers for a pizza and brew night with another couple when I came across a shelf near the register of a wine with a simple red label with white lettering that said "Il Barbaresco."

Didn't see anything else except the DOCG ring on the top of the bottle. On the back is the producer's name, "Tenuta San Mauro," and the year 1997. The price? just $3.99. Yes, that's not $39.99 or $399.99, but a measily four bucks.

"What the deal with this wine?" I asked, incredulously, to the shop keeper.
"Oh yes it's very good," he said. But how did he get it? Was a distributor dumping unsold older wines? Was it a fire sale? Were they actually in a fire? I had tons of questions and no one to really ask, since the clerk didn't seem aware of the wine's history. The shop's wine selection itself was much less impressive than it's amazing beer offerings. Most of the wine bottles were under $10-mass produced picks that you'll find at any corner liquor store. So suddenly out of no where they're pulling out a 1997 Barbaresco? The bottle looked brand new too, and in fact I assumed it was either a non-vintage (which I'm not even sure they make for Barbarescos) or some misprint with the label. Why would the vintage be on the back? And again, how did this little shop get the wine? WTF?

Barbaresco is made from the Nebbiolo grape, the same grape used to make Italy's famed Barolos. Known for it's spiciness and rich cherry flavors, Barbarescos are considered more feminine than Barolos, though they can get expensive, and can age for decades. Just looking at wine searcher, I see about two dozen 1997 Barbarescos priced from $30 to $112.

The Nebbiolo grape can make extremely tannic wines, with high acidity and sour flavors, so if you drink them too young, they can be unappealing. DOCG status means this wine had to see at least two years of aging (at least one year in oak) before being released, and the grapes must come from Italy's northwestern Piedmont region.

Anyway, I jumped at the chance to try a 12-year old Barbaresco for $3.99. If it was horrible, oxidized, or somethinge else, then I'm not losing out that much.

What I got was a mixed bag. When I poured this wine, I saw a pretty brick color, indicating the wine has seen some age. After letting it get some air, I found massive earthy aromatics, with tobacco leaf dominating other aromas of nutmeg and menthol.

"Wonderful nose - could sniff for hours," I wrote in my journal. Got me all hot and bothered for some awesome aged Barbaresco for four freakin' dollars!!!!!!

Yet this where the disappointment set in. The wine itself tasted a lot like the aromas I found in the nose -- tobacco leaf, mixed spices, mentol, but after a strong attack, the wine fell apart on the mid palate, and ended in a mess of sour sour cherry and dry, busted tannins. The end result didn't even taste like it was wine - there was no fruitiness, no freshness or life at all.

Sigh.

Well, I'm not sad I took a chance on this, and I might even buy another bottle to see if the result is any different. The reason why I wrote this as a posting is because despite the bad vino, I love the sense of discovery that you can have with bottles like these. While I can't find any info on the producer at all online, or vintage reports from the most recent books, it's still sort of like opening a time capsule and seeing what has been stored in the bottle for all those years.

Cool Way to get Coffee/Wine Gifts.....

2009-11-19T13:15:00.000-08:00

I just found the coolest thing today for helping helpless relatives buy me gifts I actually want for Christmas (yes I am that self-centered). Normally I just add stuff to my Amazon.com wish list, and tell all the relatives who want to know what to get me to check out the list. This year it's full of books about wine. Unfortunately my time for actually reading these things has diminished since having my second child in August.

But then I saw a little notice on the site today saying I could have a "add to wish list" button to my browser...oh....my....god.... instead of being limited to only products sold through Amazon, I can now go to any web page, and "add" a product to my wish list.

I've spent the morning using this tool to add bottles of wine from K&L Wines to my wish list, such as the
2007 Mönchhof Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese for $29.99 (normally $45) off of K&L's clearance list. I'm all about sweet German rieslings ever since I wrote about them a month ago.

I have a bevy of coffee sites to check out later today as well for special gifts I want. Wouldn't that be cool? To get a pound of a really sweet coffee or a rare or interesting (yet still affordable) bottle of wine for Christmas? I'm way to excited about this....and probably won't get either. But still! Just the idea of it!

A Tale of Two Wines

2009-11-15T20:03:00.000-08:00

So I know it's been like a long long long time since my last post, and I'm sorry. I have three excuses that I hope you'll buy.

1) New baby
My son, Rowan, was born three months ago and basically any free time I had before after work to write blog posts has gone out the window. As soon as I walk in the door, I quickly change into shorts and a T-shirt (god I love the weather out here in Oakland) and then am handed a warm, squirmy, drooling infant while Rhonda takes a break. Then I make dinner, give my daughter a bath, put her down, do whatever chores I'm assigned that night, and take the baby back until he needs to feed. And then I burp him. So you see, less free time.

2) Writing about wine for work
For the past few months I've been writing about wine for work, and have been receiving review samples and drinking a lot on the corporate dime, so I can't discuss those things here, unfortunately.

3) I'm lazy/procrastinate

Moving along swiftly to wine reviews....

I headed over to Wine.com's shop in Berkeley a few weeks ago because they had a $50 Cote Rotie for sale, half off. Cote Rotie, which means "roasted slope," (named because of the hills the sun bakes) is located in the northern most portion of France's Rhone region. Wines are primarily made from syrah and can include some viognier, but are known for some of the Rhone's best wines, having a spicy, full berry flavor and can age incredibly well.

The wine in question was the 2004 Domaine Duclaux. Now, I figured it was on sale for a reason - the distributor needed to move bottles being the most common reason today why things go on sale like this. So I took a chance, hoping for a winning lottery ticket. Well like all lottery tickets I buy, I lost. This wine was a poor example of what the syrah grape can produce. On the nose I got currants, steel, and musty cellar. In the glass, I got a cocktail of red berries with a varying degree of ripeness, with an overall sensation of too ripe fruit, bordering on raisiny. The wine was thin on the mid-palate, and finished with a tart acidity.

Checking out what Robert Parker had to say about the vintage explained what went wrong. Apparently 2004 was a very productive year with mixed weather, so chateaux that didn't prune a lot before harvest ended up with too many grapes. This is a problem because the vines spread out it's growing efforts and produce thin tasting fruit. If a grower cuts back the amount of fruit on a vine during the growing season, the vine will concentrate its efforts on the remaining grapes, producing more flavorful fruit. Of course, if you're livelihood depends on selling fruit by the ton, or selling more bottles, cutting back a lot of your fruit can hurt the wallet. So I totally feel for the farmers...

Even at $25, this was overpriced.

But my trip to Wine.com wasn't a total waste. One of the workers there (red hair and beard, very talkative, very knowledgeable about French wines) suggested a 2007 Marcel Lapierre Morgon (gamay) for $25. The producer is biodynamic, and the wine was made with little intervention. Overall I loved this wine - it had an intreguing nose of christmas spice, varnish and black peppercorn. In the mouth I got rose petals, dust, dried cherries and a racy acidity with stealthy tannins that appear at the end without you really noticing at first. This is a nervy wine that would be great for a Thanksgiving meal.

I'm hoping to write more from now on, but as I'm typing this, the baby is crying hysterically and Rhonda is giving me evil eyes...so until next time....

Some coffee notes.....

2009-09-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

Been longer than I would have liked between posts, just haven't been able to give this as much time as I've wanted recently. For one, I've been busy at work with some coffee and wine reviews, so I can't really write about the exciting things I've been drinking here until I finish my articles and get them out. Second, I have an infant that doesn't want to be put down at all, ever, so typing with one had and holding a squirmly little boy takes more skill than I currently possess.

Nonetheless, I wanted to put out some coffee tasting notes.

The first is Ritual Roasters' Ndumberi Peaberry (coffee bean variety SL-28). Ritual's notes said this coffee had strawberry shortcake, raspberry and lemon curd in the cup. I got more dried red berry fruits, like raspberries. This coffee had a huge acidity component to it, which I liked.

The second coffee I had was Barefoot Roasters' Guatemalan FVH Edlyna. Purchased at Whole Foods for $11.99, this coffee had a lovely silk body, with subtle berry flavors and some wood and melted butter notes.

2008 Skouras White

2009-09-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

I have a fondness for Greek wines, even if I only drink it very rarely. That's because I first started drinking wine on a regular basis when I was studying abroad in Greece during college.

I remember not liking red wine at first, because it was served warm, and I couldn't comprehend drinking a warm, or room temperature beverage with food (that's an American thing, apparently).

Still, the novelty of being able to buy alcohol at will (I was only 20) and the idea of drinking wine with dinner as what sophisticated people did, compelled me to try the various bottles on the shelves.

It wasn't long until I was exploring the wines of Greece, and loving every glass, from Xinomavro wines of Naoussa to Agiorgitiko wines of Nemea, as well as the sweet, dark dessert wine Mavrodaphne to the cheap, available in every bar, pine sol tasting Restina.

After I moved back to the US, I continued drinking wine on a regular basis, but shifted to the cheap wines I found here, which were mainly California plonk.

When I moved to California, and Oakland specifically, I came across a wine shop called Du Vin Fine Wines in Alameda that specialized in Greek wines (they have a good selection of Portuguese and Italian wines as well).

As I'm on an obscure Italian wine kick, I decided to see what they had last weekend. I was able to get a Lacrima di Morro, my current favorite red, and I asked him to suggest an off-beat white wine as well. The main one he wanted to sell me was out, but he suggested instead the 2008 Skouras White, a 60/40 blend of Roditis and Moscofilero, two native Greek grapes. As a bonus, the bottle was only $10.99.

Back home, I found this wine to have an earthy nose with a slight blue cheese mold tint to it. In the mouth, this dry wine had bright acidity and seemed to have a slight effervescence. Steely while cold, flavors of almonds and honey appeared as it warmed.

Overall, and interesting wine for $10.99, but nothing too exciting. I believe the wine the shop owner wanted me to try was a 100 percent Moscofilero, which the site All About Greek Wine describes as "A distinct aromatic grape from within the AOC region of Mantinia, in the Peloponnese, Moschofilero grapes have a gray colored skin and therefore produce a wine that is a blanc de gris. Its crisp character and beautiful floral aroma of roses and violets with hints of spices can be drunk as an aperitif or with food." Sounds good - I'll have to seek something like that out!

2006 Thomas Coyne Petit Verdot

2009-09-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I took some friends of mine to a wine trip to Livermore. They had wanted to visit Napa, but I've spent too much time stuck in traffic waiting to get to packed tasting rooms where the winery charges $10 for three little tastes, then offers you the option of tasting "reserve" wines for $15 more, and a futher "library" tasting for another fee. You can spend $40 in a tasting room trying wine without yet buying a bottle, which are themselves $40 and up. Plus you're fighting crowds.

Livermore has dozens of wineries, many that are smaller operations. Some of these I visited were literally in the garage of the grape grower. While you may not get astounding wines at every stop, you're bound to find a few great ones that won't cost you a ton of money simply because it was made in Napa.

One of the places we visited was Thomas Coyne Winery, a hard to find but worth visiting location in south Livermore. Specializing in Rhone and Bordeaux varietals, winemaker Thomas Coyne (pronounced "Coin") started making wine in 1989. The winery itself is on a hill in the middle of in an 1881 building built by French engineer Alexander Duvall. You can see Mt. Diablo in the background, and overall it's a really pretty place to try some wines.

All of the wines I tried tasted great, and I in particular liked the Petit Verdot. You can get these at Whole Foods as well.

The Petit Verdot, priced at $18, looked as black as night in the glass. On the nose, I found sweet jammy black fruit, and this followed in the mouth, as it presented ripe blackberry jam with a touch of vanilla and heat on the finish. Really thick mouthfeel, with the fruit flavors sparkling as a bright beam.

From the winery: "This little-known Bordeaux Varietal is normally reserved for blending to enhance color and body of the major varietals. The grapes came from a vineyard near Lodi in Northern California. After crush and fermentation, the wine was aged in American and French oak barrels for eighteen months. The wine is full-bodied in character with intense herbal flavors and rich oak finish."

2008 Tiamo Sangiovese

2009-09-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

We were having some friends over for dinner last night, with a plan to make pasta and sauce from scratch, so when I was at Whole Foods looking for a wine to match, I naturally gravitated toward the Italian section. I have also been on a huge Italian kick as of late, exploring the country's many indigenous grape varieties.

Sangiovese is one native grape that's used in a variety of wines, including Chianti, Super Tuscans and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. This particular bottle, the 2008 Tiamo Sangiovese, was affordable, at $10.99, made with organic grapes(my friends are really into that) and came from the Marche region, an area that I've found to make really good wines.

This bottle, unfortunately, wasn't a good example. I found it to be extremely over oaked, and the signature Sangiovese cherry flavors watered down. If I had to guess, I'd assume the grape grower didn't reduce their yields enough to produce concentrated wines, and then to compound the problem, used barriques (small wooden barrels) which gave this wine ultimately too much woody flavor.

I've been telling anyone who will listen that cheap European wines outshine their American counterparts, though here's a case where that theory didn't hold up.

In general though, a $10 bottle of wine from Europe will likely express more pure fruit and varietal correct flavors than a wine made in the U.S., especially California, where the cheaper wines aim for the supposed mass market desire for vanilla and oak tasting wines.

I think things are changing here, as I've seen more examples of wines made with a light touch, but if I want to play it safe in the wine shop, I'll head toward the Euro section.

Bolivia Cup of Excellence #2 - Flor de Mayo

2009-09-01T16:52:00.000-07:00

My mom has been getting me gift certificates to Acton, Massachusetts-based Terroir Coffee for my birthday for the past couple years, and I recently cashed in by splurging on several offerings, including the second place winner in last year's Bolivian Cup of Excellence from the Flor de Mayo farm. The coffee cost a stiff $27.95 for 8 ounces, an amount I probably wouldn't spend on my own unless the coffee was crazy good.

As an espresso, the coffee was devoid of bitterness, showing complex, subtle flavors that were hard to pick apart. I think I got some papaya and mango in there.

Prepared via inverted Aeropress, I got wonderful floral aromas of lavender and lilacs, reminding me of an astounding Italian wine called Lacrima di Morro d'Alba. I'm talking huge aromatics here (in both the coffee and wine) that are beautiful to behold. In the cup itself though the flavors aren't as strong, and I got chocolate and hazelnut notes in the finish. As for mouthfeel, this coffee was richer than other Central American coffees I've had, almost feeling a bit like butter but not quite there.

The Cup of Excellence jury awarded the coffee 90.85 points, describing it as "bright, balanced," and added it had flavor-aromas of chocolate, orange, caramel, peach, honeycake, blueberry, green apple, with a "lingering mouthfeel, complex, well balanced, subtle."

I believe I got the last batch from Terroir as I don't see it on their site anymore. If I'm going to spend $30 on 8 ounces of coffee, I'd like something a little more powerful, but overall I enjoyed this, especially since I didn't pay for it myself.

Natural Wine Week

2009-08-25T17:22:00.000-07:00

Did you know this week is Natural Wine Week in San Francisco? I didn't - though I wish I had.

"Natural" is a term used to describe wines that fall somewhere between organic and biodynamic practices. Organic will get you so far, while biodynamic incorporates a whole mess of almost religious practices that some growers chaff at. Both aim to encourage grape growing and wine making that allow the end product to truly reflect the spot it's from.

The nuts and bolts of both grape growing and wine making to achieve this process are detailed and controversial, but overall they try to limit outside influences or inputs such as chemicals like fertilizer, or non-native ingredients like lab-created yeasts. Whether these methods do work are fiercely debated. I happen to think they do produce more authentic wines, if you'll allow me to use that term, and are great for the environment.

Every day this week, one location in the city will host a tasting of natural wines. Tonight's event will be held at Biondivino, which will feature wines from Italy, Georgia, Spain and Austria. Importers will be there as well to probe with questions.

Check out Natural Wine Week's Web site for more info on this great idea.

Family Winemakers of California Tasting

2009-08-24T17:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had a chance to check out Family Winemakers tasting at Ft. Mason in San Francisco. It's one of those events where hundreds of wineries pour thousands of wines, except the key thing about this is that most are small, family-owned operations.

In the past I've attempted to take tasting notes, but I've found that it's too difficult, especially when you go from table to table quickly sipping and spitting dozens of wines across a variety of varietals. Some people I ran into tasted whites first, then circled back around to the same tables to taste reds, but I mainly stuck to reds and tasted the occasional odd white when it was an intriguing bottling.

I mostly enjoyed the wines I tried, with standouts being a Syrah from Quivira (biodynamic), a trio from Red Car Wine, including a Pinot Noir that just received a high 90s score from Wine Spectator, a Bosche from Freemark Abbey and a Howell Mountain grenache from Outpost .

The quality this year seemed better than last, and better than other events I've attended at this building. One thing that stood out to me at a variety of tables - I was getting a lot of earthy and dirt notes across the board. Not sure if it's just something I happened to notice this year and not last year, but I found myself making the same remark to several people pouring wines. It's a scent I like in wines, and to me, seems to indicate a closer connection to the place where the wines were made. It seemed like the bottles overall were in better balance on the aggregate and I'm excited to see if we're going to be drinking more restrained, complex wines from California in the future that don't all taste like juice made from raisins.

Siete 7

2009-08-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

The wine shop's description of this wine really intrigued me. They started off by saying this bottle was killer two vintages ago, flying off the shelves, but the follow year wasn't as great, and no one wanted it. Now, however, the latest vintage (2008) restores the wine's good name. Drink up!

That really puts the buyer in a difficult spot. If, like me, you didn't have the previous two vintages, you don't have any reference point to judge their assessment. Sure, they get points for honesty, but what will next year's pull quote say if this year's doesn't sell well?

But I took a chance on it anyway, the bottle was only $13.50(or around that, I forget if it was a dollar cheaper) plus the label was killer. No bad wine could come out of a bottle with an awesome label, right?

Well turns out the investment was worth it. This blend of garnacha and tempranillo from grapes grown in clay and calcareous soil in northeast Spain's Navarra region was aged in stainless steel and presents a heavy dose of spice to the palate.

In appearance the wine was violet and had purple-tinged edges; the nose was very aromatic, smelling like incense, green bell peppers and other spices. In the mouth I got raspberries, a little burnt rubber, and an earthy finish punctured by cayenne spice that really bit my tongue. After a couple of days, the spiciness subsides some, and the black and blue fruits are more present.

Great value for an interesting wine.

The juice is a blend of Garnacha and

McDonald's Coffee

2009-08-13T16:11:00.000-07:00

I never thought I would be writing about McDonald's coffee on this blog, but I have to hand it to the golden arches - they sure know what they're doing when it comes to iced coffee.

Let me begin by saying I grew up in Massachusetts, and as a small boy was thrilled whenever my parents would let me drink coffee milk - milk with coffee syrup flavoring - for breakfast. You can't find it anywhere else than New England, and even there it's not that well known. It was like heaven in a cup, especially when paired with a big stack of chocolate chip pancakes drizzled in real maple syrup. Yeah, I had lots of sugar-fueled meltdowns as a child.

From there I progressed to my early coffee drinks - I fell in love with Dunkin Donuts Coolattas as a teen. These milky, iced coffee-flavored beverages tasted amazing even if they had like 1,000 calories. I think I had one every day as a 17-year old driving to my lifeguard job at a waterpark on Cape Cod.

I still didn't get the appeal of hot coffee - it tasted awful to me, and couldn't believe people drank it black. Eventually I ventured into iced coffee with loads of cream and sugar, more like coffee-flavored milk with a quarter of the cup filled with undissolved sugar grains. In college I became aware of how horrible having this everyday was for you, and gradually changed my coffee pollution to skim milk and splenda.

Nowadays even on the hottest days I'm making frenched press coffee at work in the morning, since it's AC-ed to the point of being downright chilly. But I still have a strong association of hot summer days and large gallon-like cups of iced coffee, so the other day when we were headed off to see The Fray in concert, we stopped at McDonalds for a quick bite. I was tired and decided to try their iced coffee.

Now, McDonalds has made a huge push the past year or so with their McCafe - espresso-based drinks to order, and have been successful with the product line. The iced coffee I got came with milk and sugar added, without my asking.

I usually don't like more than a few drops of milk or cream in iced coffee, but this was definitely on the light side. Taste-wise, they really nailed what most people are probably looking for from an iced coffee. It tasted sweet, creamy, nutty and coffee-like - more along the lines of coffee milk - than overroasted beans I expected from McDonalds. It really seemed well-balanced altogether between the three flavors. I consider this a dessert drink, but nonetheless it was delicious and I had to restrain myself from downing the entire thing, less I be awake the entire night with caffeine jitters.

It's a boy!

2009-08-11T21:52:00.001-07:00

My second child was born last week, a boy named Rowan. Everyone is healthy, if not totally exhausted.

While at the hospital for a few days, I found a local wine shop, Vintage Berkeley, that does daily tastings from 4pm to 7pm, and made a visit (to the utter dismay of Rhonda, who was still recovering. I told her I was going out to buy her something special to eat from whole foods, which I did...after the tasting. Am I a bad person?)

Anyway, the wine shop has a cool concept - small production wines all under $25. They have some more expensive ones in the back, but it's more of a side room. An employee, Matt, told me if it was up to him, he'd have a wall of reisling and a wall of cab franc, which sounded good to me, as I love both those varietals. Alas, business sense prevailed, and the long, narrow shop has a good variety of wines from different regions of the world, with no discernible bias(that I could see anyway from a quick walk through).

I'm going to be adding this store to my regular rotation of shops, as I become increasingly price conscious with the new addition to my family, and those diaper bills start to pile up.

2006 Vins de Pays Cotes de Brian Clos du Gravillas "Le Rendez-Vous du Soleil"

2009-07-31T16:33:00.001-07:00

This wine came to my attention at K&L in San Francisco last weekend when a friend of mine asked a clerk for something earthy from France. He suggested this bottle, saying it had that dirty taste she was looking for.

Mix of 30 percent each cab, syrah and carignan, with 5 percent each of mourvedre and grenache. Aged 25 months (in what, I wonder? Bottle just says the length of time).

In appearance this wine is dark and murky, with cranberry-tinged edges. The nose has an old, musty earth smell as well as black fruit scents.

In the glass, I got dense currant flavors and blackberry preserve. I wanted to write down jammy because this felt so thick on my tongue, but it wasn't overly sweet, which I typically associate with the "jam" description.

This wine has a rich mouthfeel and was hard to interpret at first. I detected several strains of fruit on my palate, but separating them in my head was difficult because of the weight of the overall wine. Tangy, almost bitter tannins bring the wine to a finish.

This is certainly a beast of a wine, and is a good example of how something can be powerful but not overdone with oak, vanilla, and gooey sweetness. Not bad for $15.99. I have had dirtier wines, but if you're not sure if that's a flavor you're into, this could be a good entry bottle.

2000 Crociani Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG - Reserva

2009-07-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

Picked up this 9-year old bottle of wine at the Wine Mine and really enjoyed it. Clocking in at 13.5 percent alcohol, this mixture of Prugnolo Gentile (75 percent), Canaiolo nero (15 percent) and Mammolo (10 percent) is aged for two and a half years in oak barrels and then six months in the bottle before being released.

It's color is a beautiful brick burnt red, most likely due to it's age. Even my non-drinking partner noticed how different in appearance it looked from other wines I've had recently (mostly younger, purplish hued wines).

On the nose I found burnt rubber, dung, and some floral accents, which blossomed into a larger part of the scent after being opened for a few days.

In the mouth, I got a tart but floral taste, favoring violets and ending with a lifesaver cherry component. Very light body. Overall I enjoyed the fruit in this wine, and described it on the whole to a cool breeze in August, compared to much heavier American reds I've been drinking.

Vino Nobile di Montepulciano wines are mostly made with Sangoviese, and shouldn't be confused with the grape varietal Montepulciano.

Tasting notes from the producer: "Ruby red colour with orange hints, delicate and intense bouquet with pronounced notes of violet. Dry, rounded, harmonious, full of fruit with a lovely mouth’filling finish."

K Vintners Syrah flight

2009-07-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting for months to attend an event at the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant this week to meet Charles Smith of K Vintners, the rock star of Washington winemaking.

I've been able to acquire some of his lower priced wines (see reviews here), and wanted to try the upper echelon and see what all the commotion is about.

The day came for the big event, and I was all ramped up to try the flight of his single vineyard Syrahs and speak to the man himself. Hours before I was about to leave my office, however, I got pulled into a work event for the night. Oh well.

Disappointed that I couldn't meet Smith, I still hoped to try some of his wines, and the next day, I went over to the wine bar to see what was left.

"Do you still have the K Vintners' flight available?" I asked the bartender with all the eagerness of a child asking a Best Buy clerk if some hot video game was still in stock the day after the hordes of other kids waited in lines for hours to buy every copy.

"Hm, let me see," he said, gazing over the bottles that were in front of him. "Yeah, we can do a mini flight."

YES!!!!

The full flight would have consisted of five wines and cost $35. What I got was three generous pours, and probably half an ounce of another one, for $22. I think all of my pours finished off their bottles, so I wasn't expecting much in terms of quality, though with wines purported to be this big, I was thinking a day after opening might do them some good.

I started with the most expensive of the offerings, the 2006 Royal City Syrah, which was selling for $105 for a bottle at the shop (you can get it for $80 from K Vintners's website).

The first thing you notice about the bottle is its kick-ass label. All of Charles Smith's wines employ a striking black and white contrast on their label, with huge letters and a goth-like image. On Royal City, you see a jeweled crown with a skull chopping on two bones on the front of it.

If you look for information about this wine on the K Vintners site, all you get is a blurb review from Paul Gregutt: “100 Point Wine…Rich scents of purple fruit, smoked meat, cedar, lead pencil, moist earth and so on proclaim a wine with genuine gravitas…..the finest syrah I have ever tasted from Washington State, and in fact as good as any young syrah I have ever tasted..." (April 2009). WOW! Best Washington Syrah ever tasted! That's pretty awesome!

Well, what I got wasn't as great. In fact it seemed too huge, too sweet. The wine had a dark ruby red color, and a moderate nose of ripe fruit. It tasted like sugary sweet candy, red and black berries so ripe they're oozing juice. The finish starts to fade after a few seconds, and then BAM! a turbo boosts kicks it into another gear for more what seemed like minutes.

This velvety mouth-coater was definitely the big boy of the tasting, bringing wood and vanilla notes as well. I just don't see it lasting a while (my hopes of getting one of these bottles and socking it away for a couple of decades until my daughter hite 21 were dashed after this tasting).

The bartender agreed with me. "Point chasers," she said, and then professed her love of dirty Rhone Syrahs.

The other wines in the flight seemed smaller in stature to this one. The 2007 "The Deal" Syrah from Wahluke Slope, priced at $37, was almost cartoonishly sweet. On the nose I found red liquorish, charred wood and some green component I couldn't put my finger on; in the glass I described the wine as having Willy Wonka flavors. Just super candish, sweet berries, and some heat on the finish along with a bit of spice.

Since I only tasted about an ounce or two of the Phil Lane Syrah, I'm not going to give it a review here.

The wine I liked the best was the 2007 Morrison Lane, from Walla Walla, priced at $41.

Tasting the "cleanest" of the wines, it had nice blackberries and blueberries, with a juicy center that seems to pop out on your palate. Hints of cranberries and raspberries as well. Medium, dry tannins were balanced against smooth acidity.

Didn't get much of a nose on this one.

Now, Charles Smith has said his K Vintners line up is meant to age, and his Charles Smith wines are for consuming now. Since they're much cheaper and more appealing, I'm probably going to stick with those for the time being, though I still want to try his K Vintner's Ovide, which Gary Vaynerchuk sounded estatic about on the Thunder Show in October.

Old Soul Company (Sacramento)

2009-07-07T10:16:00.000-07:00

I was in Sacramento last week for work and while there set about to find some good coffee. Using ManSeekingCoffee as a guide, I ventured into Old Soul Co. located near 17th and L streets and found coffee delight.

The cafe looks like an old warehouse, as it's a huge open space with a Diedrich roasting machine in the corner, a scattering of seats, couches and tables, and the main operation in the middle. Fresh baked items tantalize from their racks behind the counter.

On my first visit, I had a shot of their "sauce" espresso blend, which had light brown crema, with no tiger stripping. Bright nose with grassy notes. In the cup, I found it to be thick an juicy, with tropical fruit notes, and a medium acidity, with no bitterness.

I also had a cup of their Ugandan Mt. Elgan Bugisu drip, but couldn't make out much after the espresso coated my tongue with its richy goodness. Old Soul describes it as "Beautiful subtle fruits with a candied sweetness. Thick and syrupy with a cream-coated softness throughout the cup."

I took a bag of the coffee home to evaluate, and so far, found it to give off a strong black cherry scent all the way through from the beans, in the grinds, and in the fresh brewed coffee. Bright, fresh cherries were persistent in the cup, to the point where I wrote down it was like liquid cherry pie. Initially creamy on the attack, the coffee's acidity picks up through the middle and lingers on the finish. I got an odd chalk dust flavor at the end, but I'm not sure if that was a one time deal or something I'll find again.

As an espresso, this coffee presents milkshake-thick crema, lively acidity and notes of caramel, cherries and layers of other exotic fruits I couldn't quite pick apart.

Old Soul is definitely one of those "third wave" coffee roasters bringing customers medium to light roasted single origin coffees. They seem to really care about what they do, and in my conversations with them, are trying to develop a barista scene and culture of coffee love in Sacramento. If you're up there, check them out.

2006 Poderi San Lazzaro

2009-06-22T21:18:00.000-07:00

I've been drinking a Rosenblum Syrah (2006 Snow's Lake Vineyard, Lake County) and have been pondering similes to describe how the wine has opulent fruit flavors that seem obscured by a heavy, thick coat of smoked wood. You know that smell that penetrates your clothes if you sit near a camp fire for any amount of time? Imagine that in your mouth. It's the same after taste you'd get from drinking a single malt scotch aged in toasted barrels for a decade or more (I'm thinking primarily of Laphroaig, one of my favorite go-to single malts).

I say all this because in the midst of my mental exercises trying to figure out an interesting way to breaking down this wine into words, I had a glass of something far superior that threw my thoughts about it into clear relief.

The Rosenblum wine is very "American" - ripe fruit, too much wood. The glass of wine I had, a Montepulciano/Sangiovese from Marche, Italy - the 2006 Poderi San Lazzaro, Rosso Superiore - reminded me why I love good Italian wines.

We had dinner at Pizzaiolo in Oakland, and of the several by the glass offerings, I chose the Montepulciano from Marche because I've had wines from that region and that grape before and really enjoyed it.

Marche is a region in central Italy on the eastern coast.

I got a little rubbery dirt on the nose, and in the glass I tasted violets, black and red fruits and a spicy finish. At $10.75 a glass, it was the most expensive choice on the menu, but it was worth it.

The fruit tasted fresh and pure, without any heavy overlay of wood or vanilla that ruins so many good American wines. I've certainly have had bad Italian wines, but the more I venture out to other countries, the more I understand why many winos prefer cheap foreign wine (cheap meaning less than $20 a bottle) to a comparably priced American bottle.

Four Barrel Duncan Estate Micro Lot #2 (Panama)

2009-06-19T15:24:00.001-07:00

Following my recent good experience with Four Barrel's Ethiopian Wondo Harfusa, I went back for something different, something from South America that would be complex and light.

I picked up the Duncan Estate Micro Lot #2 from Panama for $13.50. I was pretty sure I tried coffees from this farm in the past (I think during a trip to Stumptown a few years ago) and remembered liking it very much, so I wanted to give it another go.

Four Barrel describes this organic, direct trade coffee like this: "Linden dominates the overall flavor of the cup from fragrance through finish and is accompanied by notes of kumquat, key lime, strawberry and evergreen."

My initial run at this coffee in a French press was a disaster. Tasted lots of pencil shavings and led, which are signs of old beans (the coffee itself was roasted a few days prior to my brewing it, but they could have still sat around for a long time in jute bags, losing their liveliness). There was some tropical fruit underneath the other layers, but overall it wasn't a pleasant experience.

I next brewed this in an inverted Aeropress, and got the same thing off the bat. "Just tastes old," I wrote in my notes. As the liquid cooled, I found some milk chocolate notes as well as kiwi, and something like a hibiscus tea flavor.

As an espresso, this coffee had a little more life, showing dried fruits, prominently cherries. Still, I'd say pass on this one.

2006 Razor's Edge Shiraz

2009-06-12T15:18:00.000-07:00

Back in November I reviewed a 2004 Razor's Edge Shiraz and found it to be a great little affordable bottle of wine, showing sweet tar and honey on the nose, and heavy black plum flavors in the glass, strong tannins and a bit of heat, with some tar and dirt flavors on the finish. While big enough to outweigh most meals, I still thought it would be good to match up against stinky blue cheese, or just on it's own on a cold night.

Well, I've gone and purchased the 2006 vintage of this wine a few weeks ago, and came away with a totally different impression. Priced at $11.99, the nose had black fruit and toasted barrel notes. In the mouth I found blackberries, black currant, more toasted wood flavors and a lot of heat. The finish imploded because of the vodka-like taste at the end.

I was really disappointed - I was hoping this could be a good go-to cheap Shiraz, but now I'm not sure.

The winery's distributor, Joshua Tree Imports, describes the 2004-2006 vintages as such: "The Razor's Edge Shiraz is dark purple in color, yet bright and appealing in its clarity of fruit flavors, persisting on the finish against firm tannins."

Four Barrel Ethiopian Wondo Harfusa

2009-06-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

I've been drinking a lot of coffee from Ritual and Barefoot lately, so I decided to switch things up and buy a bag of beans from Four Barrel (although they get their beans from Portland's Stumptown and Sweet Maria's, according to ManSeekingCoffee).

Four Barrel Coffee has been around for almost a year now, and I've visited several times, often during my lunch break, for espressos and the occasional Dynamo donut. You can see my postings about them here.

I was a little hesitant to buy beans from them after reading ManSeekingCoffee's pronouncement in March that their roasting has yet to live up to expectations, and that basically he prefers Stumptown's versions better. Still, it's been a few months and thought I'd play around with a bag for a few weeks and see what I got.

During previous trips, I didn't see roast dates on the bags, but they all have them now, which is an important piece of information for the coffee buyer to know. Freshness is so critical for coffee to be good, and I'm realizing that it's not just about the roast date, but the age of the beans themselves. I've pretty much ended my brief, torrent love affair with Blue Bottle after purchasing numerous bags of beans for home brewing, only to find they've all seemed dead inside. Nothing but stale, pencil shaving flavors. No acidity, no life, despite the fact they they were all roasted within a week of my purchase. I still like to get an occasional shot from their new cafe in the Ferry Building because of their cool lever machine and the convenience factor for me (I work a few blocks away), but I no longer get their beans for home because they don't seem to refresh their stocks enough or keep their green beans fresh.

Anyway, I went to Four Barrel a few weeks ago and wanted something lemony, something powerful. So I picked up their Ethiopian Wondo Harfusa for $12.50. As Four Barrel's website is just a front page right now, I couldn't get any additional info about the beans, but there is info on Stumptown's site.

Here's what Stumptown had to say: "Our lot was traditionally fermented for more than 24 hours, washed and left to dry in the sun on raised beds for more than a week. Wondo Harfusa is pure essence of hibiscus in fragrance followed with ripe red fruit flavors of raspberry, red currant and red cherry that finish in classic Yirgacheffe style with distinct notes of black tea."

I toyed around with different preparations for a week or so and found the inverted Aeropress to extract the best flavors. Very complex coffee, with a nutty, buttery taste to start, developing into jasmine/floral tea and ending with stone fruit flavors. The coffee had a light body and muted acidity. As a pour over, I got more nuts in the finish - hazelnut and macadamia nuts.

If you enjoy tea-like coffees, this is one to try. I haven't had Stumptown's version, so I can't compare it, but overall I liked it and will be exploring some more Four Barrel offerings in the future.

Sean Thackery's Pleiades XVII

2009-05-28T17:16:00.000-07:00

Wine Maker Sean Thackrey is one of those guys who's limited production bottles can be hard to get a hold of, thanks to high 90s scores by Robert Parker. Thackrey, who claims to own the world's largest collection of ancient writings on wines and reads in seven languages, lives and does his wine making in Bolinas, California, in a Eucalyptus grove. His wines are named after constellations, and he has a Petite Sirah called Sirius; a Rhone-style blend called Orion; a Pinot Noir labeled Andromeda; and the cheapest of his offerings, the field blend called Pleiades.

Pleiades is a non-vintage, which is why it's given Roman numerals. Last year I popped open version XVI for a party with friends and enjoyed its red berry fruit flavors and cool-Eucalyptus finish (read review here).

This year, I spied Pleiades XVII at the Wine Mine in Oakland and purchased a bottle for $21 there (prices can vary depending on where you shop from $19-$26). I drank this bottle over a few days. It's appearance is a black cherry color, complete opaque in the center with some light filtering through the edges, which looked brick red.

On the nose I got Nyquil cherry scents, along with Eucalyptus and bark. These flavors follow in the mouth, to the point where it really has that medicinal cherry taste going on, accented by the cool Eucalyptus that carry throughout the sip.

Grippy tannins on the palate, with an acidic bite on the finish.

As much as I wanted to love this wine, I found the medicinal cherry flavor a bit too overpowering and ultimately this was more of a two-note wine when I expected more. I would certainly call it interesting though, and definitely not a cookie-cutter California wine.