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

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

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.....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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