Chilly Wine Friday

There is a big wine deal coming up next week called ZAP down at the Union Station.

ZAP is a pretty cool group of people who basically love Zinfandel. No, Tony, not the pink stuff. Red Zinfandel.

Red Zinfandel is cool stuff because it is uniquely American and as such it is really a lot like us. It is in your face, big, bold, a little spicy and many of them are high octane.

You should check it out if you love to swirl and sniff with the best of KC's cork dorks. It really marks the beginning of the Spring season of many, many local wine events. It is March 3rd.

I'm attending and I'll give you a full blown review of many Zins next week I'm guessing.....

But for this week I thought I'd prime the pump with a Zintastic review of a great Zinfandel I had this week.

My wine of the week was the 2006 Amapola Creek Sonoma Monte Rosso Zinfandel. Wow. What a freakish wine. I've had several Monte Rosso Vineyard wines. It is a sought after high elevation vineyard in the Mayacamas and the vines are very, very old....like over a 100 years. Several wineries buy fruit from it. These guys made only 361 cases.

It tasted of wild berries and cloves and bing cherries and the normal vanilla from the oak. The spice was black pepper. It was a little more racy than I expected. It had some nice blueberry and along with that raciness would make me think cool climate or maybe a cooler than normal vintage in general. Now that I think about it I don't remember other Monte Rosso wines tasting "huge" and jammy. They seem to have an elegance and a restrained nature to them. Maybe that is the vineyard talking. Anyway, it doesn't have to big and high alcohol to be fantastic zin. This is a great wine.

One quick note on my philosophy of Red Zinfandel. I like them relatively young meaning release to 6 years-ish. I don't think they age particularly great. The fruit goes away quickly and what is left in my opinion is prunish. So, the good news is there is no need to age too long. Just enjoy. Also, there are many very nice examples for a reasonable price. You can get some very nice Zinfandel for around $20.

This bottle was $45 which I would consider pretty upscale for Zinfandel but in this case worth it.

Have a great weekend and enjoy.

Vaya Con Dios.

Wine Friday!

With all this cold weather we had we've had the fireplace fired up and it has brought me back to one of my all time favorite wines. Port.

I love it all the time but when it was so cold and you have the fire going you can't help but imagine yourself like some stuffy old rich English dude sitting by the fire at the lodge drinking me some port.

Port sales have been horrendous which is good news for those of us who love it. They still fetch a pretty penny but nothing like the rapidly escalating price of Bordeaux or cult cabs. Of all the wines Port ages the best, the most gracefully, and frankly in the most forgiving way.

There are great stories and traditions that go along with port. One of my favorites is the "Bishop of London". The English will tell you that tradition hold that a decanter of port is put in front of the host and then he pours first for the person on his right and then passes it his left. It should be passed continuously until it gone. If someone stops passing it the host will ask that person, "Do you know the Bishop of London?" and then proceed to say, "he was a nice old chap but he never passed the port." This was nice way of saying...Faux pas and pass the port jackwagon!

There are several styles of port and I could bore you to bloggy tears on the subject but today for my wine of the week I'll stick with one we've been drinking. Graham's 10 year Tawny Port.

One of the things I love about Tawny port is that they are stable and don't need to be finished in one night. Once opened they will last for at least a month and still taste the same. Unlike vintage port that get all the attention, tawny doesn't improve with further age.

Another thing is that they are versatile. In the summer you can put a little chill on them and they taste awesome....or room temp when it is a bit colder.

This is potent stuff.....like 20% alcohol so small portions and better to consume at home or have a driver. I like having it instead of dessert when I go out. Expect like a 2-3 ounce serving.

The Graham 10 Year Tawny has wonderful fruit aromas of ripe raspberry and some dried fruits as well. It has a beautiful florals as well. Then you get into the cocoa and vanilla bean richness and actually a creaminess. It is rich and pure pleasure to drink and the alcohol gives you that warm feeling all over your love when it is cold out. With food, I love a creme brulee with some fresh fruit on it. I also like walnuts, figs, strong cheeses. Delish.

Expect to pay about $30 for a bottle but again since you should....he he.....drink smaller servings it should last a while. I tend to over consume going back 2 or 3 times for refills. Port hangovers are brutal so be careful.

If you never have tried it I highly recommend it. Cheers. By the way....don't be tempted to try and save a couple bucks on domestic ports or even Australian ports. The best port still comes from Portugal. Period. My favorite producers are Dow, Warre, Graham, Taylor, Fonseca.

Vaya Con Dios.

Is it Wine Friday already?

It is wine Friday already.

It seemed like the week flew by so quickly. Didn't get much posted. Sorry.

But that doesn't mean you should go the weekend without knowing what jocoeveryman has been drinking and thus.....what you should be drinking :-)

I went to Extra Virgin this week to nosh a little bit on some tapas and such and have a couple glasses of wine. What a hip place.

First, Extra Virgin is doing a pretty nice job with these small plates. One of them that was really spectacular is the brussel sprouts. When brussel sprouts are done well they are so delicious. They had some other vegetables mixed in but they were so tasty. Everything was good. Check it out.

They have a reasonable list of wines by the glass. Because of the food I decided to roll with Rose.

So, because I had such a nice time and because Rose doesn't begin to get enough attention I'm picking Borsao Rose from Spain as my wine of the week.

It was super cold and the snow was frozen hard and crispy and well, nothing makes me think of a nice warm summer day like rose. The color was beyond like costco salmon and more like Sockeye Salmon. It had very nice expressive strawberry flavors and maybe even a little more toward cranberry with a bright, clean acidity. I picked up a tiny bit of spice and it makes sense as it is made from Grenache or Granacha. The spice was definitely in the background and was like baking spices. For a rose it had a nice long finish.

I thought it could have been a little more aggressively priced but hey......a filthy rich joco guy shouldn't really complain when he gets the chance to dump some alms to the city poor.

So, remember. Rose isn't sweet and people in the know won't think you are drinking white zinfandel and if they do they are probably the same idiots who think Rolex is the best watch made in the world too......... Delicious and great with food rose is definitely hip with the real wine intelligentsia. It doesn't age well sooooo.....drink it up young. Mostly 2009 at this point and the best part is you can really nice rose for $12 and under. Enjoy.

Vaya con dios.

Snuggle up for a Winter Wine Friday!

It was a good week to stay inside and drink some wine from the cellar but I did also make it to the wine shop earlier in the week.

Malbec madness continues. Everyone is crazy for Malbec like Snookie for clothes that don't fit and vodka on a Wednesday night.

Malbec is hot like Natalie Portman's career right now.

Digression: I have always thought Natalie Portman was smoking hot but it seems like everyone else is figuring it out all at once. I tweeted about a month ago that this will the year of Natalie Portman. It will be. She looks like fun but if you read her Wiki you'll find we don't have much in common other than we are both really smart people! At least wine is acceptable to her vegan lifestyle...... Let's see I'd have to give up meat, leather shoes, become a Jew, support Democrats to have a chance........ way too hard. Sometimes better just to admire from afar.

Anyway, back to Malbec. For the most part affordable. Fat, juicy, rich, firm tannins are a recipe irresistible to most red wine lovers.

So, I've been drinking quite a few and the Alamos Seleccion Malbec is my favorite for this week. I'm sure you are mostly familiar with the regular bottling from Alamos if you like Malbec from Argentina at all. It is probably the most popular winery from that country and is in wide distribution. The Seleccion would be considered their reserve bottling and it is far and away a different bottle of wine. This is Peyton Manning compared to Eli Manning. Same family completely different player. This wine is much bigger and richer than the regular bottling. It shows Blackberry and Blueberry with some dark mocha flavors and just a little leather and for me the signature "meaty" quality I find in good Malbec. It also exhibits pretty hints of violet. It is rich and voluptuous and the tannins are nice, not too bitter but pleasingly integrated and long. The wine finishes long. Finally, at the end of the bottle as I'm squeezing out the last little bit I notice something that always pleases me just a little bit. Sediment. While wine doesn't have to have it to be good I've often noticed in many bottles of red, even younger big reds, that I've really enjoyed that it isn't unusual to see a little sediment in that last glass. It tells me that the wine hasn't been over processed. Not over filtered. I like to see this. I like to see this especially on a fine at this price.

This is a Malbec worth seeking out. At $15 it is a real bargain. I mean a great buy. I'm sure it gets regularly overlooked by premium Malbec buyers because they associate the less expensive regular bottling with the name. Don't make that mistake. This stuff rocks and is worth seeking out. I found it at Lukas.

I drank this while watching movie night with the kids and while it certainly went down all too well that way it made me really made me wish for a slow roasted pork shank or a hearty beef stew.

Enjoy and Vaya Con Dios!

Freaky Friday Wine Post

Let's see. It was fine week in wine drinking.

I think I had wine pretty much every day this week. That is a fine week.

And there was some mighty fine drink.

Further, it was shared with some mighty fine friends.

Laughs had.

Hard mornings endured. Thank you Excederin.

All good.

I think I had the hottest wine ever from Chile.

2006 Casa Lapostolle Clos Apalta.

For everyone who thinks wine from Chile was going to be limited to the $3.99 end at the grocery store I give you the awesome Clos Apalta.

While most of the big boy blends are based in Cabernet, Clos Apalta is based on Carmenere at about 40% and then backed up with Cabernet, Merlot and some Petit Verdot.

Carmenere is awesome. This is what Chile should be promoting. Dark color. Black fruits and mocha. A tad wild. Extracted yet elegant. Nicely integrated vanilla and spice from the oak aging. This is some big wine. Worthy of decanting to give this bitch a little air. It is big. firm. elegant. This is serious wine. Worthy of your best piece of meat whether you like docile grain fed and or the call of wild game. Dare I say, drinking Carmenere of this quality....really discovering Carmenere of this quality is like going out for simple cup of coffee in a shitty road side cafe in a mid Missouri town, meeting the hottest Peruvian woman in your life, spending the day and the night with her.........this most incredible day of your life. You wake up with a spent and tired look on your face but holding a winning lottery ticket worth 100 million. Okay, perhaps over stated and a little weird but I'm serious. This wine was stone cold bad ass.

It is a little pricey but in my opinion the best of what Chile has to offer. At $70 bucks it costs more than a typical Chilean worker makes in a month......but if you can drink it and not feel like you need to make a donation to "Save the Chilean children".....then by all means go ahead.

That's it. Come back to see what I drank next Friday.

Enjoy. Vaya Con Dios.

Prosecco is hot this season! Best Wine Friday!

Have you noticed all the Prosecco showing up at the trendy places? I certainly have.

It makes some sense to me. It is cheaper than champagne and has a cleaner taste but has the romance of being from Italy.

I've noticed instead of champagne many nice and trendy places have started offering Prosecco as their entry level sparkling wine choice by the glass. Cheers to them.

I've been partaking of several and indeed I've been enjoying them. It is a excellent way to start an evening out..........or to be the drink of choice all evening long.

Prosecco is a sparkling wine made in Italy. The upper North East part. It is a grape, becoming more known as Glera, and a place and a style of wine. It typically is light with nice fruit but dry. One big difference between champagne and prosecco is in how it is made. Champagne goes through the second fermentation, where it gets the carbonation, in the bottle. This time spent resting on dead yeast cells for several years gives the wine a nutty and toasty quality. Prosecco by contrast utilizes a Charmat method where the secondary fermentation is completed in stainless steel tank. The french created a stigma to disparage sparkling wine not made in the traditional method. It is important prosecco is made this way because the fruit is delicate and wouldn't handle that process. Just like you don't see light whites like Albarino or Pinot Grigio barrel fermented and aged. The result is appropriately made, delicious sparkling wine that doesn't cost you a ton of cash. Unlike Champagne, it doesn't age well and should be consumed young and fresh. Although most Americans don't like aged Champagne either....which should explain why we are loving the Prosecco so much.....because as Champagne ages it grabs more of the nutty, bready notes.

I hope the trend continues. Many countries make nice sparkling wine. Maybe some of them will make it to the US someday.

For today, I'm recommending one I had at Houston's on the plaza called LaMarca but I've also had some nice examples from Lunetta, Mionetto and Zardetto. Yes, I've started looking for them when I go out.

La Marca is my favorite so far. It was bright with floral and peach and citrus fruits. The bubbles hit just right for my rendezvous with a friend for a holiday tipple this week. A tiny bit of googling also revealed to me that the Wine Spectator gave it 90 points. Nice.

Is there much hotter than a sexy, beautiful woman drinking sparkling wine?

I think it was like $8 bucks a glass and while I'm not into labels......this one is a very cool light blue that has a very upscale look to it......yep, I said upscale to describe prosecco.

If you are having a NYE party this would be the perfect thing to serve for guests. A conversation piece and affordable. If you only serve sparkling plan on 1 bottle per 3 or 4 people per hour and you'll be rolling right through to midnight.

Cheers!

Wine Friday........Sweet.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist but many of us wine geeks have for a long time been complaining about the globalization of taste and homogenization of style in wine. Is it something to really be concerned with? I don't know for sure but sometimes I see a trend and it scares me.

This one centers on sugar. I think many wines are becoming sweeter. First, it started with Chardonnay....you know like Kendall Jackson and that signature nutrasweet flavor they have in their wine. Most of us were like big deal we don't like or drink that crap anyway. But of course, because of their success many other Chardonnays came along that "benchmarked" their style off the most successful one and now there are shit load of sweeter Chardonnays out there. I had one last week that tasted like a freaking vanilla creamcicle and that is just wrong.

When it was just white wine I was like, whatever.....let them eat their cake and I'll drink white burgundy! But......I'm seeing it just a bit in red wines now too. A little sweetness in red wine that is just below the detection threshold shows itself as smoothness and richness in a red wine, especially younger wines. I'm seeing it in the current Malbec craze. Many of these wines have elevated sugars for sure. How about Yellow Tail Shiraz? Tell me that wine was dry?

Now..........I'm actually seeing sweeter reds hitting the market but they aren't really labeled as such. I tried this one called Apothic Red over the holidays. It reminds of Menage a Tois, another red blend. This wine is decidedly sweet on my palate. Sweet isn't a problem. I like sweet. I like Sauternes. I like Port. I like Riesling. Hell, I even like Moscato. But I know they are sweet. This wine isn't that sweet. It is just sneaky sweeter than you would expect. Apothic and Menage a Tois kinda market themselves by their packaging and label as big, bold, dry wines. They don't seem to indicate anywhere I can find on the label that as a consumer I should expect them to be well......sweeter. It is kinda like getting the girl you picked up at the bar back to your place and finding out she has a dick. A bad surprise.

I'm not a hater by nature. I can't say I didn't like Apothic Red. It was a fine for a sweet(er) red. My friends absolutely loved it. I could see it going really well with a chocolate and cherry dessert. My mind started thinking.......hmmmm....what are they up to here? Americans are a sweet culture.....soda drinkers. Secretly appeal to them while because people want to say they drink dry but really like sweet? Maybe. Am I crazy?

So, no problem. I was glad my friends preferred this wine. This way I had a completely delicious bottle of 2007 Quintessa all to myself. And. it. ROCKED. If you have an extra $125 I highly recommend it. Huge, rich, dark.........did it too have a touch of sweetness? Nope. Jackass. Your mind is messing with you.

Happy Friday all. Cheers and Vaya Con Dios!

Friday Fun with Wine.......

I had a great bottle of Pinot Noir this week. I was a big Pinot fan before that Sideways movie and finally damn good Pinot is as available as it was before the movie.

2006 Fiddlehead Pinot Noir Fiddlestix Vineyard Seven Twenty Eight. Long name right? This is a little producer making some killer Pinot from the Santa Rita Hills in the Central Coast. 728 represents the mile marker the vineyard is at on Santa Rosa Road and they make only 1900 cases. They claim they pick only the best 15% of the fruit and sell the rest off. This is good stuff. It displays upfront some delicate smokiness from French oak. I get some cherries. Ripe Bing and even Cherry Cola. I also get some earthiness in a little mushroom and some white peppery spice. This is really a good example of Pinot.

I paid $40 for it at a wine shop in Chicago.

I guess for Pinot 40 is the new 30? Is it fair? No, but I think that while the luxury end of the wine business is still in the doldrums I think this is the new price layer for quality Pinot Noir. I saw a bunch in the store on this particular day and many seemed to hover right around this price point. If it was all this good.............I'd never complain.

Have a good weekend. Drink good wine. Vaya Con Dios.

Wine Friday........Yes!

I know it is 100 freaking degrees out but don't forget about your favorite big reds. When you keep your home at 65 degrees the summer doesn't get you down so much.........so big reds are always in season for us in joco, right?

Seriously, while I do drink a little more white in the summer, mostly outside, I still drink lots of big reds too.......especially with all the grilled meat from the grill. By the way........don't drink them too warm idiots. Of course mine is straight from my temp controlled cellar but for you poor cellar-less bastards you want to drink wines like this at about 60 degrees so pop it in the fridge about 15 or 20 minutes before you open it.

I found a shocker this week and this without question was the wine of the week.....maybe the month.

2006 William Hill Bench Blend Cabernet Sauvignon. This is the winery that used to have the big leaf on the bottle years ago but I haven't seen it in awhile. They have redone the label and it looks a little less 80's now. The wine was awesome. I was blown away. You can tell it is a bordeaux blend meaning it has some Cab Franc, Petite Verdot and some Merlot in it. It is big with lots of fruit. It is rich but it isn't over the top. It is refined. It is slightly understated........restrained if you will. Okay, I'll call it elegant with many layers. Besides the black cherries and cassis it has a little mocha, some cedar, some vanilla and some spice. This is a bottle of wine to take a second look at. This could become my new house Cabernet. They make a regular Napa version is well. I'll have to try that as well. I guess you would call this their Reserve Cab. Regardless, it is everything that Napa can and should be.............

How much: About $35.

Why Bench? You'll see wineries from time to time refer to a wine as benchland or bench, especially Napa producers. In terms of vineyard sites there are 3 kinds in Napa. There is valley floor which runs along the road, there is mountain fruit which are vineyards cut into the tree line and are usually on a fairly steep grade with poor soil conditions and excellent drainage. Then you have what is in the middle. Benchlands. These are the rolling hills between the valley floor and the Vaca and Mayacamas Mountain ranges that create the valley we know as Napa. They are prized vineyards and generally produce excellent quality. It isn't a bad notion to look for wines from Napa's Benchland vineyards.

I'm out. Have a great weekend. Vaya Con Dios!

Wine Friday is Back......well at least this week

Listen......I'm just a typical guy who is afraid of commitment. I don't know if Best Wine Friday will be back next Friday or not. I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow. Well, I do actually but I'm not telling. The point is...........don't you love the unpredictable bad boy. I'll tell you....you do.

I may be here. I may not. For now I'm here so drink in the wisdom of Jocoeveryman :-)

I drank a great (and affordable) bottle of wine this week that freaking blew me away.

2009 Nederburg Lyric.

A South African white wine blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay. This shit was really delicious. A buddy of mine smuggled it on the golf course and we drank it right out of the bottle. Yep, I said South Africa. There they call the Sauvignon Blanc "Steen".....but you say it like STAIN if you are in the know.

I love the acidity and the peach and tropical notes. You know what I love the most.........so NOT joco.........it is really affordable.......like less than $10 affordable.

This wine is perfect for these really hot summer days. Did I say hot? Well, outside but in my house like most in sojoco it is a cool 68.........crap, I have to use a snuggie on the couch to watch TV. Hate me city bitches. We have electricity, AC and sewers. You should try it.

Seriously though. You'll love this wine and you'll love the price.

I seriously have no damn idea where you get it. Ask your favorite retailer to bring it in for you. You'll look like one smart snob for asking for it.

Cheers and Vaya Con Dios.

Friday, Friday, Friday.....Best Wine Friday

It was a pretty good week getting back into the swing of some regular posts but it is Friday and that means Jocoeveryman's wine of the week.

It is nice out and I've got stuff to do so I'll give you the quick down and dirty on something you might like to drink this weekend.......maybe on your patio or at the neighborhood pool with your friends.

Today.....I'm going at little rogue. Why not?

Not a wine specifically.....but a wine cocktail. The White Port Cocktail.

What is it? Well, I had my first one in Portugal (because I might be the most interesting man in sojoco) several years ago and decided to make one this week. Delicious. Simple and refreshing. Get a good white Port. I like Fonseca's Siroco White Port. Dow and Churchill's make good examples as well. Don't expect your store to give you many options. I haven't tried cheapo options like Fairbanks or Sheffield and I'm not saying don't but I have no idea what it will taste like. Not sticky sweet like red Port but fruity and even a little nutty. Lighter than Sherry. Add some fresh whole mint, muddle if you want, add ice and shake it. Top off with a slash of soda to taste....more if you want it lighter, less if you want it a little sweeter. I garnish with a little lime slice. I like serving in a tall glass. Some people use tonic instead of soda but you all know soda is much less caloric than tonic, right?

Why? Your friends have never had it and you will also look like one of the most interesting people in the sojoco as you explain that this is a very typical summer cocktail in Portugal. Also, very easy to make. Half as potent and let's say Gin or Vodka and tonic so you can drink them all afternoon.

How much....you should be able to find the Fonseca Siroco for about $15 and the good news it will keep if you don't drink it all.

Cheers and Enjoy.

Vaya Con Dios!

Fabulous Wine Friday!

Yea........the weather is supposed to be great this weekend. The Bo Sox are in town to beat up on the Royals and I see the weekend patio home happy hours starting.

Home Happy Hour? That is what JOCO parents with kids do. You don't want to have a party and you don't want to get a sitter so you have over the neighbors or parents of your kid's friends. You sit around and have a couple glasses of wine and then head home for dinner.

So what are you gonna drink?

I had a good one this week.

My pick for the week is Chateau D' Aqueria 2008 Tavel.

Yep. Rose. How often can you say you drank the best of something in the world for about $15 bucks? This isn't some $3000 bottle of first growth bordeaux or a cult california cab. This is by reputation the best producer of rose wine from the most famous region for making rose.

Rose is super hip among wine snobs. It ISN'T like White Zinfandel. The color is like pink coral and the flavors are bright, ripe raspberries and with crisp acidity. The wine is dry. It tastes awesome on a warm, sunny afternoon on the patio with friends............I'm usually imagining myself on the coast of the French Riviera at an outdoor cafe watching smelly French people stroll by......... I really love this wine and I really love rose. You will too this summer. Drink it chilled. It is extremely versatile and goes with lots of food as long as they aren't too heavily seasoned.

I know if you haven't had it you are really gonna struggle to put it in the basket and head to the check out with your manhood intact. Just do it. Hold your head high knowing you ARE IN THE KNOW! It isn't like holding your wife's purse in a bar. You will have instant cred with the wine shop guy but if you must throw a couple of your favorite $50 Cabs in the basket too and you'll be fine.

Final Thought: Tavel is a region in France's Loire Valley and the only such region allowed to make ONLY rose wine........so you know it is good. They use Grenache which is a grape that is catching on as a big red as well.....especially from Spain where they call it Granacha. Lots of places like to make rose and often winemakers will make a little and sell it from the winery only where it sells well. Winemakers love rose. Spain, Australia.........and good old California all make some great rose from all different types of grapes like Syrah, Grenache and Pinot Noir. Oh, one last thing........when buying rose VINTAGE is important in that these wines DO NOT age well. They are meant to be consumed young so when given the choice when I go to the wine shop I cull it down to everything on current vintage....youngest and then pick from there. I wouldn't buy anything older than 2008 right now. Cheers. Enjoy!

Vaya Con Dios.

It is Friday!!! Time for Best Wine of the Week.

I feel a little cheesy to calling out this wine as my favorite wine of the week. It is as trendy in the wine geek world as boys wearing untucked dress shirts and expensive jeans at a Johnson County bar.

You know what though.....I've actually had this wine twice and I've enjoyed it both times.

So without further drama........

This week's wine of the week is............

2008 Orin Swift Cellars "The Prisoner"

This wine is a Napa Valley red blend and I've started seeing it pop here and there. Just because several of us wine geeks have found it doesn't mean the rest of you are in the know. But I think you will be soon enough.

The wine is a blend of a majority Zinfandel (46%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (26%) and the rest is some Petit Syrah, Charbono, Syrah, Grenache.

No doubt it is a big, voluptuous fruit bomb with cool blue, red, and black fruits with nice lush, soft tannins and apparent spice like pepper and what I'd say is a little bit of new oak (vanilla). This wine is cool because it is a crowd pleaser AND it drinks well now. I'm not a huge fan of old Zinfandel and while this guy has some other varietals I still don't think most will like the way it tastes when it has some age.

I paid $68 on the wine list at Zest for it which means it should be had at a wine shop for $40. Not cheap by any means but this ain't Wyandotte County. For a semi-special night with some friends and an awesome meal cooked outdoors this would be a great place to start the conversation.

Final Note: A word on blends. Blends have often confused because in America we really like buying wine with the varietal name on the bottle....ie, Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay. California wine law dictates that it must 75% of that varietal to put it on the label as such. Blends are often a labor of love for a winemaker in my opinion because they are trying to make the best wine they can regardless of what they have to put in the bottle. Since many wine sections and wine lists are organized by varietal they usually get stuck in a section by themselves that only us wine geeks shop. Good for us......bad for you. You can also look for Meritage but that usually connotates a blend made from Bordeaux varietals. However, this isn't law. Blends are a fun thing to check out and they often have funky names like this one and a very popular one called Menage a Tois.....however, I'm not a fan of it and a white blend I am fond of called Caymus Conundrum.

Enjoy. Have a great weekend.

Vaya Con Dios!

Best Wine Friday!

It was a crazy week for me. I was at a work meeting at an undisclosed location but the sun was sun shiny and I did get to play some golf. I'm glad to be home.

Anyway, sorry about a lack of posting. I hope you understand.

But getting back on track brings us to Best Wine Friday. The best wine I had this week (and I had a bunch).........

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Artemis Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

How much: $55

This Napa producer has been a well known player since the dawn of the California wine business. Almost to the point where I had forgot about them. Under the radar? Iconic. This wine is mostly Cab (92%) and the rest is Merlot. This thing is complex but to the point. Big. Bold. All the black fruits giving way to some fun spice and meaty (umami) flavors. It has a richness to it that I appreciate.

You can wait on it but you know what it tastes pretty damn good right now and after a few minutes in the Riedel it really, really is a good drink tonight.

I would love this with pepper steak, filet mignon. This night I had it with some slow cooked brisket and some grilled flank steak. The grilled meat really made it pop.

If $55 is too much for the Wyandotte County crowd then I guess a back up plan might be Boone's Strawberry Hill.....still widely available for less the $3.

Final thought for the wine week (if you have time):

As if it all weren't confusing enough there is the iconic Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, Stags' Leap Winery....and the Stags Leap District. WTF, right?

That is a lot of effing deer jumping around.

There is a story but let's suffice it to say two people used the same name........and a judge had to sort it out. Clear as mud right? To make it more confusing they named the area around it Stags Leap as well which encompasses an area in which other people own vineyards so those producers can put the Stags Leap name on their bottle as well. Confusion abounds to this day.

So, it is all in the apostrophe and whether it is the Winery, Wine Cellars or the District. In fact, I suggest you focus on the Winery versus Wine Cellars with the later the more famous, iconic property from the late 1800's. They both make very good wine.

The District suggests an area that boasts steep cliffs and a result of temps averaging 10 degrees more and soil that is mostly gravel and ash. Perfect for Cabernet. Some call it Bordeaux West. You'll see several producers that use this fruit and put it on the label.

My only thing is this......it is easy enough to figure all this out standing in the aisle at Lukas but not when looking at wine list written by a drunk and overworked wine steward and the casualty could be your pocketbook. This is one time where I recommend paying attention to what you are ordering.......check to make sure that is what they bring.........and don't be afraid to call them on it if it isn't right.

Cheers! Vaya Con Dios!