Thanksgiving: A tale of two pinots (and an ice wine)

Hello everyone!! I hope you had a terrific Thanksgiving! My older son was back in town and we had a really lovely dinner with just the four of us, myself, my husband Al, and our two grown boys. I served erbazzone with swiss chard as an appetizer. It had a flakey crust and a filling of chard, cheese and eggs. Then we had butterflied game hens with mushrooms and a little cheese over a "nest" of sauteed potatoes. We had cherry tomatoes warmed in butter and herbs, sauteed green beans with a little shallot, and some purchased cranberry-orange relish. We started with 2008 Erath Pinot Noir from Oregon state. Then we opened the 2007 Luigi Bosca Reserva Pinot Noir from Argentina, and finally we had the 2008 Riviere du Chene Monde Vin de Glace (ice wine) from our recent trip to Canada.

The 2008 Erath Pinot Noir was a nice pairing for the little birds. The birds were very moist and savory having been marinated in wine, olive oil, and seasonings, then browned on each side under a broiler, then covered with gruyere cheese and roasted in a pan filled with a 1/4 inch of white wine. Mushrooms are added half-way through the roasting step. Of course, the birds are basted multiple times while they are roasting. So, back to our wine. This was a dish that could hold up to a fairly robust wine. The Erath pinot noir was very good with it. It had a nice garnet color with a touch of brick red at the edge of the glass ( unusual in such a young vintage). It had aromas of raspberry and strawberry, with floral notes and a touch of the mulchiness often found in pinot noir. The flavors were true to the palate and it had a nice silkiness to it that complimented the richness of the food. It had a pleasant lingering finish. This wine is about $20 at McScrooges, but is available at Total Wine in Atlanta for $15.

The 2007 Luigi Bosca Reserva Pinot Noir was also very good. This is one of my favorite pinots for sipping. Al and I differ in our opinions on this wine. Al says it is a nice enough wine, but it doesn't taste like a pinot noir. I have to agree, but I like it anyway. This is a pinot that is not to be confused with a burgundy. It is very new world. I don't know if it's because of the use of oak barrels, the approach of the winemaker, or if it really is all due to terroir. It really is very full bodied for a pinot noir. When it was first opened there was a lot of oak on the nose. This dissipated with a little time in the glass. It had a deeper color than the Erath. It was a deep, dark garnet. It was more aromatic than the Erath with aromas of raspberry, cherry, some oakey vanilla and a little spiciness (sweet spice more than pepper). It was nice and velvety on the palate with a lingering finish of cherry and spice. It's unusual for a pinot, but I really like this wine. This was about $18 to $20 at Ashes, and it is also available at Total Wine in Atlanta for $20.

Pinot noir is an interesting varietal, much like chianti in Italy. There is an incredible range of expression for this grape. Before last night, I had 4 very different pinot noirs in my wine rack. They can be very light and delicate in the traditional Burgundian style with aromas of strawberries and flowers and light in body. These wines often are fairly complex with hints of mulch or "barnyard" especially as they age. Pinots can also be fairly robust, as is this Luigi Bosca, with bigger fruit and more oak than the Burgundian style pinots. I think it's fascinating how one varietal can express all this. Also pinots are good companions to a wide variety of foods. They are an excellent choice when the food is too much for a white (or you just don't want to drink a white). A light pinot can be easily substituted for a rose. Really, it's just a matter of matching the weight of the pinot to the weight of the food, especially for fish and chicken dishes without too much hot spice. The burgundian pinots are especially food friendly and pair well with almost any fish or fowl. The more robust pinots pair well with dishes that won't quite take a heavier red, but mostly, I enjoy these as sipping wines. The heavier pinots would compare well with a lighter Cotes du Rhone wine, and could be used in their stead. There may be more pinot reviews this fall. It's a varietal worth exploring over time.

Finally, we had the 2008 Monde Ice Wine with our apple and cranberry tart. My younger son, never having had a dessert wine, kept commenting over and over about how sweet it was! Yes, that's the idea. Also, the alcohol content was low in this wine, only %10. I believe this is also typical of ice wines. When we purchased this wine, I thought it was sold as half or whole bottles and we bought a half bottle. Later, I noticed that it wasn't a half bottle at all, but was only 200 ml. So, in the future, I'll be checking the size of those little "half bottles". I don't know if this is something new, or just something I never noticed before. Anyway, we were just looking for a little sip of something sweet with the pie, so everything worked out well. It had a lovely honey color in the glass. It had aromas of honey, apricot, pear and a little floral component. The flavor profile was similar with pear, apple, apricot, honey and touch of sweet spice. It had a luscious, creamy silkiness, and a lingering finish. It was very good with the apple tart, somehow the pairing made both the pie and the wine taste even better. I love it when that happens! I try to have nice pairings every time, but once in awhile, it really is just magical! This wine was $30 or $35 at the winery in Canada. I haven't found it here, yet.

2009 Lucky Star Pinot Noir (California)

Hello!! We enjoyed this pleasant little wine with rabbit pie tonight. The color was garnet, and as expected with a pinot noir, not too deep or intense. The nose was of raspberry and vanilla. The flavors were raspberry, cherry and vanilla with soft tannins and very soft acidity. It was very fruit forward and pretty sweet when first opened. As it opened in the glass, it softened and the flavors became less intense and better integrated. This wine was $8.79 at Campbell Station Wine and spirits. Considering the price, this is not bad. It's very young and fruity, reminiscent of a beaujolais nouveau. I thought it lacked structure and complexity. Of course, it is a 2009 vintage and what do you expect from an $8 wine? I would prefer this to a beaujolais with my turkey. It would be good for a party, especially if you have friends that are not big wine drinkers. It's so soft and easy drinking that many people would really enjoy it.

2007 Educated Guess Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Hello!! This was a lovely wine that we had the other night with black and blue salads. It was a little big for the salad, but not a bad pairing. It was a very delicious sipping wine, that really needs no help from food.

It had a deep inky color that was purple at the rim. The nose was dark cherry with vanilla, woodsy oak, and a little bit of licorice. The aromas blended and mellowed nicely as the wine opened. On the palate there was black cherry and vanilla. It was very smooth and even across the entire palate. This wine was just plain delicious! I went back today to get another bottle. Ibelieve this wine sells for $19.99 at Campbell Station Wine and Spirits for this wine. I understand that this wine will be featured at the next tasting on the second Tuesday of December.

2008 Domaine de Couron Cotes du Rhone Villages

Hello everyone! This wine is the younger brother to the previous wine, from the same producer, so bear with me as I can't help but compare the two wines. I tasted this at the Second Harvest wine tasting sponsored by Campbell Station Wines and Spirits and then we took home a bottle. It is a bllend of syrah and grenache. I believe it also sells for $15 to $18 a bottle. This wine is similar to the 100% syrah, but a little rougher, with tannins that are not as well integrated. It's also a 2008, whereas the previous wine was a 2006 vintage. I liked this wine, but I do believe it would become more rounded with a few years in the bottle. We had this wine with pizza at home. Not as bad a pairing as you might think, because I make this pesto pizza with spinach, mushroom and goat cheese that is always too light for a classic Italian pizza wine. Al always makes a second more traditional pizza with red sauce and mozzarella. So picking out a wine for pizza night is a bit of a problem. This wine was pretty good with both, not a great pairing, but ok with both pizzas.

The color was very inky and dark with a rim of purple at the edge of the glass. The nose was of cherry and vanilla with a bit of licorice. Much like the previous wine, this one nicely coats the palate. It's not a heavy wine, but has a medium body, just a little lighter than the 100% syrah. The flavor profile included lots of currents, some cherry, a little vanilla, black tea, and a hint of licorice. This is a very nice wine, and I may pick up another bottle while I'm there purchasing several bottles of the 100% syrah.

2006 Domain de Couron Cotes du Rhone 100% Syrah

Hello everyone!!

We're back in Knoxville now and we have had a couple of very nice wines this past weekend, especially this one! We attended the Second Harvest wine tasting hosted by Campbell Station Wines and Spirits. This event is always held on the second Saturday of the month from 4 to 6 pm. Both this wine and the next one I will blog were featured at this tasting. We came back from the tasting and I cooked lamb chops, brussel sprouts and spinach. I decided that the syrah would be a great pairing with the lamb, and it was! A bite of lamb and then a sip of wine and back and forth because they complimented each other so well.

The color was a deep ruby to garnet. The nose was big but not huge with aromas of cherry, raspberry, licorice and subtle forrest scents. On the palate it started out as fruit forward with cherry and blackberry flavors. As it opened it became less fruity and flavors of licorice, dark chocolate and black tea became more apparent. Both early on and after opening the flavors were smooth and velvety and coated the entire palate. The tannins were firm, but smooth. We loved this wine! It was big and round without being overpowering. It was elegant and controlled. If this wine were a dinner guest, it would be William F. Buckley: smooth, elegant, witty and conservative. If syrah can be like this, it explains all the new world plantings of the grape. What I don't understand is why some producers make such big, overly muscled, gloppy wines when they could be making something elegant and refined like this.

I paid $16.50 at Campbell Station Wines and Spirits and I'm planning on running back over there and picking up a few more bottles for later.

Notre Vin Maison (Our House Wine), red blend Quebec

Hello, everyone! Tonight I am enjoying a little red wine from the local Quebec region. No year, as in the previous wine. Perhaps this is not required in Canada? This is a very unpretentious wine from Rougemont, which is just across the river from Montreal and just North of Vermont. It was somewhat aromatically challenged with light aromas of strawberry, blueberry and raspberry. The taste is similar with no complicating additional flavors. In fact, it is very reminiscent of Lambrusco, but without the bubbles. This is a very light ruby red wine that could be served with fish or chicken dishes. It drinks much like a rose, being lighter in body than almost any pinot noir. I'd actually prefer this to most roses. We had it with salads and cheese bread in the room the night before leaving Quebec. I had to more or less talk Al into buying a wine for tonight, as we're driving back to Knoxville tomorrow. So, since this was available in 500 ml bottles ($9) and was a local product, we decided to give it a try. As a person this would be like that simple guy at work, solid and pleasant enough, but not the deepest thinker.
We also picked up some Ice Wine while in Canada. That will be blogged later when it is opened and enjoyed.

Cotes Du Rhone Villages Montreuil Red Wine of France

Sorry, I could not find a year on this bottle. I actually picked this up at a grocery store here, in Quebec, to have one evening in our room. It was $15, and I believe I've seen this in the states. It's a blend of syrah and grenache. It was a nice little wine, and true to its type. It was fairly light in appearance and in taste, with a ruby to garnet color. The nose was raspberry, blackberry, and a little vanilla. There was an added touch of spiciness (orange rind?) on the palate. It had a soft and silky feel in the mouth. The finish was soft and rounded, pleasant but not terribly long. We had this wine with sandwiches in the condo kitchenette. It was nice with the sandwiches, which were loaded up with veggies. This would pair nicely with chicken, turkey, salmon, etc. You could have it when you would normally serve a burgundian pinot. As a person, this wine would be the dinner guest who gets along well with others, a quiet, pleasant guy.

Gattavecchi 2004 Vino Noblie di Montepuluciano, Reserva Dei Padri Serviti

This was a beautiful bottle of wine, full of soul and personality!! It is made of 100% Prugnolo Gentile grapes (aka Sangiovese). It had a deep garnet color, reminiscent of blueberry juice, and was not terribly dark. The nose was of plum, blackberry, cedar and licorice (the label also mentioned vanilla, but I didn't pick it up). The palate was much like the nose but also with a dark cherry component that rounded out the other flavors nicely. The flavors were well integrated and all were present on the finish. It was very smooth and elegant. The tannins were somewhat firm, but not too strong. The weight was medium. It got better and better as it opened over an hour or so of sipping. I got this at Atlanta Wine and Spirits for a little less than $30. I've already blogged this wine in the '03 vintage and we loved that too, but '04 is reputed to be even better, and I think it was. Both wines were excellent and I'll continue to seek out this producer.
We really liked this wine! It was a bottle that really brought home what wine writers mean when they talk about authenticity and soul. It felt like a very serious wine. It was almost like having a third person at the table, someone who is very adult, polite, and pleasant. A sharp contrast to the last wine. I have to say that the Big Guy red was pretty much like its name. It was loud and a little too slick, like those "party guys" we all know who get a little too loud and have a little too much fun. He's ok for an outdoor barbeque, but not someone you can have a serious conversation with. He's too busy impressing other people and telling slightly off-color jokes. The Montepulciano, on the other hand, is like that quiet, well traveled older friend. You can sit and converse with him and perhaps he'll share some of his experience with you. It's a totally different kind of relationship. I could digress into a discussion on "Old World" versus "New World" wines here, but I think there's already enough mud-slinging on that topic. I've had wines from the New world that have Old World soul and vice versa. One of the challenges I face when buying wine is to find these soulful bottles in a price I can actually afford, or to put it another way, to avoid the wines that are just cheap consumer products. I hate to make generalizations like this, but we all know that all wines are not at the same level. The trick is to find wines that are really enjoyable (and moving, if possible). That's really what all the wine talk is about.