June 9, 2004
The near-monsoon rains and sudden burst of heat tell us two things: 1) summer is arriving, and 2) it’s time to prep the barbeque for the long grilling season ahead. And, besides a frosty beer from time to time, nothing goes better with grilled meats than the big-fruited wines from California, Oregon and Washington State. Read on for news about several tastings featuring these domestic offerings, as well as aand preview of Hennepin Lake Liquors’ sale—arguably the best summer wine sale in the metro area.
First, the tasting reports. I was lucky enough to sit down with Mikael Thollander and Robert Croce of The Wine Doctor, sampling a lineup of their very best from the West Coast. After a light warm-up of a couple South African Chenin Blancs, we tasted a lovely Riesling from Brooks Winery in Oregon. Charlie Trotter, the Chicago celebrity chef, buys up almost all of Jimi Brooks’ Riesling, but a small amount is available locally at $17.99. Top quality.
Next we moved on to a few wines from Walter Schug, a premium Carneros region producer. The Heritage Reserve Chardonnay was sublime, with a rich fruit and oak balance. Schug barrel ferments its wine and ages it sur-lie (with the fermentation sediment in the barrels for big extract flavors). This chardonnay is one of the few worth the $31 price tag. Great with a grilled salmon or halibut. The Heritage Reserve Pinot Noir—the grape that Walter Schug has devoted his whole life to mastering—was even more stunning.. Elegant yet full of gusto, it would accompany a grilled lamb or salmon entrée perfectly. Also $31 retail. Schug’s ’99 Merlot was massive, but a $42 merlot is a tough sell in my opinion (I’ll contradict myself in just a few minutes!). It was a bit herbaceous in the nose, which is characteristic of merlots from cooler regions like Carneros and Oregon.
Those same regions are emerging as the very best sources of Pinot Noir. The next one we tried, from Maysara, was majestic. This ’01 Delara Pinot Noir, made by the aforementioned Jimi Brooks, was perhaps the finest example I have ever sampled of this sometimes awkward grape. Worth the $45 if you can find it. Ask Phil at Hennepin Lake Liquors to pick up a case and add it to his Summer Sale inventory.
The tasting got even better with two top producers from Washington State. Robert Parker named the first, DeLille Cellars, as the very best in Washington right now. Chris Upchurch, winemaker, produces a couple of estate bottled Bordeaux-style blends, namely Chaleur Estate & Harrison Hill, both of which retail at around $60 a bottle. Then there is the D2, the “deuxieme” or second wine, which blends the remains of the top estate wines. This ’91 D2 retails at about $40, and I found it at first very tight and hot, but as I “followed” the wine over the next 48 hours, tasting it at various points, it opened beautifully to show its full pedigree. It’s as good as, say, a Silver Oak Cellars or Jarvis from Napa Valley, at about half the price.
We ended our outing with two products from Andrew Will, second perhaps only to Delille as the premiere Washington State winery. Both wines, the ’01 Klipson Merlot and the ’00 Seven Hills Cabernet, were amazing. I could only use extreme superlatives in my tasting notes—“incredible!,” “stunning!” (though admittedly, this could have been partly due to the effects by then of about a dozen wines). These wines both retail at $50, which might seem steep, but not if you actually drink the wine. It’s all relative.
The next tasting to report was a benefit fundraiser for a local Humane Society. Greg Varner, proprietor of Excelsior Vintage wine shop , chose most of the lineup.. Whites included Monte Volpe Sauvignon Blanc ($12)(very well received), Bonny Doon Big House White($12)(always a good quaffer for grilled chicken or pork), Gallo of Sonoma Chardonnay($12)(a standard in value chards), and Cambria’s “Katherine’s Vineyard” Chardonnay ($18)(an even nicer accompaniment to grilled chicken, pork, or even salmon).
For the reds, things became a bit more interesting, as Greg’s lineup accented a few selections from my spring Napa trip. The showcase wine of the evening was Duckhorn ’98 Howell Mountain Merlot, and it proved every bit the winner predicted. We sampled from a magnum, so it was showing a bit young but opened nicely over the evening. Also on the sample list was a nice merlot from Andretti Winery, a relatively new Napa producer owned by the race-car legend Mario Andretti. At $12, this is a lovely wine with enough structure to complement a grilled rib-eye. A “Fleur du Cote Rouge” from Torii Mor was medium-bodied and delightful—another example of why Oregon is tops for Pinot Noir and rhone-style wines. This wine would go perfectly with grilled pork tenderloin.
We got a most pleasant surprise from a Meritage from Hahn Estates in central California. A classic five-grape Bordeaux style blend with merlot leading the way, this wine, for under $20, is a great choice to accompany any sort of beef done on the grill. Likewise, the Napa cabernet from Liparita ($25 in California, but not yet available in Minnesota) was powerful and smooth, with enough backbone to stand up to a grilled steak. We also enjoyed a Zinfandel from Chateau Montelena, brought back from Napa, but luckily now available in town. $25-$30 may be a bit pricey for a Zin, but hey, it’s Montelena. Not many know that this premiere cab-chard producer even makes Zin (they make a Riesling too, but only sell it at the winery).
Speaking of Zinfandel, I was fortunate enough to try a bottle of 7 Deadly Zins, an old-vine zinfandel from Central California. Very big fruit for the price (around $20), and a great choice with barbecued ribs. Yummy!
The last tasting in this report was a small, private BYOB event at which a few interesting bottles showed up. Among the three that stood out were two from Gundlach Bundschu, the $12.99 Bearitage and the $19.99 Mountain Cuvee. Both are blends, and great wines for summer beef grilling. The Bearitage is a perfect burger wine, whereas the Mountain Cuvee would show better with a nice sirloin. The third pick was the Steele “Pacini” Zinfandel, long a favorite of mine and also a great accompaniment for ribs or steak.
UPCOMING EVENTS
“G’day in a Glass” is a huge Australian wine tasting on June 16 from 6:30pm to 9pm at the Nicollet Island Pavilion. There is a Trade Only tasting in the afternoon and an event for the public that evening. Over 300 wines will be shown!
Hennepin Lake Liquors Summer Wine Sale
This sale runs through July 3. Come back for details on both the sale and its kick-off wine tasting event in the next report. In the meantime, get grilling!
Leave a Reply