Thursday, May 23, 2019

The Desert Wine Guy - 2016 NED - Sauvignon Blanc

 
2016 NED Sauvignon Blanc
   Today we are going to be taking another trip to the country of New Zealand, the Marlborough AVA to be exact as today's wine review is of the 2016 NED Sauvignon Blanc from Marisco Vineyards (https://www.marisco.co.nz/). Our review wine comes in at 13% Alcohol and cost me $15. The wine is made from 100% Sauvignon Blanc grapes and is surprisingly, cork sealed as well.
   Pouring the wine into my glass it appeared almost clear in color but it did however have a slight golden tinge to it. Bringing the wine to my nose it exhibited notes of Lemongrass as well as  Grapefruit Zest. Adding to these notes is also a fairly light yet effective note of Green Apple. I also wish to tell you that overall this wine is showing off a fairly nice Bouquet here guys and I believe that it brings along with it the promise at least of a bright, slightly acidic but yet fruity Palate. I am hoping that the Palate can indeed deliver on this promise because if it can this should be a rather nice wine.
   So here we go, how does this wine taste on the Palate as well as if or how, does this wine match up to it's nose. To begin with here, there is a strong Lemongrass note that translates from the nose over to the Palate and brings a freshness of sorts to the wine that is really nice and stands out here along with a note of Grapefruit Zest which also translates nicely from the nose. Together the two notes are certainly dominant in the wine but yet are not to the point of being overpowering. Together these notes also bring this wines initial mouth presence into being one of a tanginess and present a wine slightly on the Acidic side. Presented here is a also decent bit of minerality thrown into the mix as well which is really making for a mouth watering and juicy wine and when also put together with that rather nice acidity makes for a bright, lemony and refreshing wine on the Palate overall.
Winemaker - Brent Marris
There is a welcome and needed note of stone fruit freshness of a fairly non sweet and largely unripe Nectarine on the Palate which adds to the other notes freshness. What I am tasting here is definitely not a hot weather, California tropical, fruit forward, Sauvignon Blanc but more along the lines to an extent of almost a typical Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc wine with the typical notes that the AVA is known for presenting in this varietal. I will tell you however that this wine is missing some fruit which in my opinion it should have. Now....while I do understand that this is a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and that the region is typically not known for a sweet, fruit sugary wine expression I do feel it still could have presented at least somewhat of a sugar note or perhaps a bit more of a tropical note to it. Now I  don't want you to misunderstand me as just because a wine is from this particular AVA and posses the concentration of the notes that it does, it is not an automatic determination of whether the wine is neither bad, good or great although overall this will effect the outcome of this review.  As you can probably imagine by now, there is a large dryish note to this wine. As I previously said, this wine is missing a sort of "something" to it. There is no Melon or real Apple notes on the Palate. There is no Passion Fruit or any other note for that matter that is even in the slightest way able to add at least a bit sweetness or sugar to the wine. This might definitely sound like a bad thing to those of you who like the sweeter interpretation of this varietal and I certainly totally understand that, even for someone like me who appreciates both the hot weather expression as well as the cooler weather expression of the varietal this wine put me off to a small extent. I especially liked the fact that you can almost actually taste the Terroir in the wine and know exactly what type of soil these vines were grown in and that is nice. Overall here I feel that the wine fell a little short of what I would expect from the region overall. Well guys you now have my thoughts on this wine and while it is a fairly short review (for me) it is time to warp up this up and close this review out.
 
   After completing my review of this wine I want to talk about what a popular wine magazine rated it. This particular magazine rated this wine at 91 points. I do not agree with that rating and believe that this wine should NOT have even broken into the 90 point arena. Judging from other peoples reviews on this particular wine I noticed that there are many areas where my views or opinions match those of the so called experts but there are other areas in which we differ. I guess that is why there are so many wine critics in the world. Bottom line here is that I did enjoy this wine but once again, found it lacking in some areas. It is not the usual expression of the varietal that I would normally expect from this AVA but I do appreciate it for what it is. Now, for the part you have all been waiting for. On the Desert Wine Guy rating scale I give this wine 88 points, I just wish there were at least some of the typical notes such as Nectarine or Passion Flower that the varietal is known for.

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Tuesday, May 14, 2019

The Desert Wine Guy - 2014 Cascina La Doria Gavi


   Welcome back to my wine blog guys. Today I will be reviewing the 2014 Cascina La Doria Gavi which is a white wine made from 100% Cortese grapes. I have never heard of the varietal prior to this review but I did discover that the Cortese varietal is one which is predominantly grown in the town of Gavi which is located in the southeastern region of Piedmont Italy. Breaking it down a little further I want to tell you that the grapes for this wine are grown in the commune of San Cristoforo. This varietal is also Italy's first white wine to gain international notoriety and is considered one of the top-ranking Italian whites today. With this review I am also checking out and reviewing the last in a series of wines that I bought on clearance for $4.99 at a large retail liquor superstore. While I paid $4.99 on clearance for the wine it normally sells for $18.99 at this particular store. This wine comes in at 12.5% Alcohol and sat for 6 months in steel barrels. This wine is produced by Villa Lanata (http://www.villalanata.it/en/) although they do not appear to claim the label on their website as there is no mention of the label there. There is however mention of the label on this (http://www.cascinaladoria.it/en/products-category/la-doria-gavi-docg/) site. A closer look at both sites will show that they are indeed one and the same. One other interesting thing about this wine is that it is a single estate wine which means that the grapes for this wine come from only one single Vineyard. The winery and vineyards don't have to be contiguous, but they have to be located in the same appellation. Let's go ahead and check out the Nose of this wine now.
Cortese vines
   On the nose the wine presents notes of very light Pear as well as a super light Peach. There is a slightly more moderate note of Honey that overall dominates the nose but overall the Bouquet I would have to say is certainly on the lighter side with a very light tropical Bouquet. Please keep in mind that a light Bouquet doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong with a wine or that the wine is not a quality made wine.
   So here we are, talking about basically a $20 wine from a single estate in Italy, sounds good huh? I will remind you that the whole idea that I had in creating the profile of The Desert Wine Guy is to review wines for the average person. Now, is $20 a reasonable price for the average person to spend on a wine. In my opinion while it may be at the top of what is permissible, it is appropriate. The question I ask myself as always and that I try to answer for you as well is is this wine worth the $20 price tag it normally has? Stick around and we will find out together right now.
   So we are now moving to the Palette and how the wine tastes or comes across here. Well to begin with understand that the wine is tropical and semi light in the notes that it does present. A note of Pear is pretty nice as well as the note of Peach. There is a somewhat drier note of Nectarine that follows these other notes and the wine just seems to be ......pleasant.  I need to tell you guys that at first this wine prior to be allowed to develop a bit was exhibiting a super serious note of fruity Acidity that really almost completely turned me off to it. Once given about a half hour to open or develop however, this wine really softened quite a bit and transformed into a white that displayed a wonderful Honeysuckle note yet still thankfully did manage to retain a bit of that fruity Acidity where it actually worked in favor of the overall wines presentation rather then against it.
There is a sort of dull lemony type note that comes out and thankfully it is without any harsh tartness displayed. This lemony note in reality goes very well with the fruity Acidity I spoke of and I believe also keeps what I think could have easily been overdone Acidity rather successfully in check. As this wine opens (and it does) it displays more tropical fruit and becomes brighter on the Palette. The notes of that Honeysuckle as well as white flowers really comes to life and really present themselves pretty nicely. Speaking once again of the rather moderate Acidity I have to tell you that while it is toned down it does not disappear at any point on the Palate and continues to impress up to the finish, I for sure did thoroughly enjoy it. Speaking of the finish I have to say that there is still an ever so slight amount of harshness that exhibits itself on the finish. While it is not terrible and it does not distract from the overall enjoyment of the wine, it is noticeable. It is now time folks, time to close out this review. Let's move now to the closing paragraph and put this all together for you.
   So, here we are at the end of this review. There are some things that I really need to talk to you about concerning this wine. Really quickly I want to say that you already know that I gave this wine a total of about a half hour to open up and develop but prior to that time I handed a glass of this wine to a friend who agreed that the wine was a little more then slightly over the top in Acidity, they also said that the finish was flat and watery although I myself didn't think that. They also understandably said that the wine was not good. At the time I said to myself that I was going to have to really bomb this wine. But wait, there's more. After tasting this wine after it opened up we both feel completely different about it as we both agreed that we were glad we waited the half hour. Overall I will tell you that I really liked this wine. Light Tropical notes and some Acidity to add a hair of complexity to it, nice wine. On The Desert Wine Guy rating scale I give this wine 91 points.
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Saturday, May 11, 2019

The Desert WIne Guy - 2016 District 7 - Sauvignon Blanc

   Today we are going on a trip to District 7. Where is District 7 and what do they have to offer, that is a good question. District 7 is one of 17 grape crush districts located in the state of California with District 7 being in Monterey County and thus influenced weather wise by the Pacific Ocean. I was at my local Supermarket the other day and I came across a Shopping Cart of wine with a "discount" sticker on it and well, how could I pass it up? Honestly I have more then enough wine in the house that I can review especially with my recent trip to Napa but I figured, why not? Looking through the cart I saw a lot of wines that simply were not of interest to me. I came across one bottle of our review wine which is the 2016 District 7 - Sauvignon Blanc (https://district7wines.com/) and decided I would try it. The wine as you can see from the picture above was reduced to $8.99 and sells $16 retail as well as at the winery itself. The price alone gave a little more incentive to try it and so here we are. The wine comes in at 13.5% on the Alcohol scale and is (of course) sealed with a Screw cap. The grapes for the wine are listed as Estate Grown and of course due to the proximity of District 7 are grown in a cooler area due to the Pacific Ocean influence of wind and other weather factors. The wine is also 100% Sauvignon Blanc and sat in Stainless Steel all the time. One other item of interest here that I want to mention is that at Harvest the grapes were of varying Brix (sugar) levels (weird). I have never tasted a wine from Monterey County prior to this so it should be interesting indeed.
   Lets go ahead now and look at the label of this wine and see what I can tell you. Looking at the label here and above it would not normally be a wine that I would reach out for and take off of a shelf as it just doesn't strike me as being of interest visually. Looking at it here on my review table I kind of am perceiving it as portraying in my mind at least the thought of a Pool or Beach wine, inexpensive, semi-sweet and perhaps therefore even also......forgettable. The label did provide needed information and did explain where the wine got it's name from which was nice.
   Moving to the wines appearance in my glass now I will tell you that looked like water. I did not see any Straw or Golden tinges or Hues that would change that opinion no matter how I much I moved the glass around. The wine visually is unimpressive to say the least.
   On the nose now the wine presented a note of super light and fading (as is the entire Bouquet) Gooseberry with the slight promise of at least a small bit of Minerality. There is also an ever so slight note of Guava and Honeysuckle present but overall the Bouquet does nothing to glorify or showcase the wine nor does it leave me in anticipation of what I am about to taste. Once again I am finding the wine unimpressive.
   Now we are onto the Palate presentation of the wine. Guys, I hope the wine can liven up a good bit because so far it is totally lacking of anything that would bring me back to it in the future. Light Gooseberry and light Pear, both fading fast are presented on the opening of the wine. There is a watered down aspect to the wine as well. Go ahead and throw in a bit of light Lime and some super light straw,perhaps Minerality notes and for the most part you have this wine summed up. The website for District 7 says that the wine has "bracing Minerality" well if it does I would like to find it because it seems to have escaped my bottle. Honeysuckle makes an appearance here and I believe this is truly the dominate note yet it can't save this wine from the direction it is unfortunately headed in. I will tell you as well that there is a note of Passion Fruit that is exhibited here but......this note as with the others in the wine just seems to fade really quickly. There is a big spice note here on the Finish as well that is presenting a big note of herbaceousness on the Palate and not in a good way either. Discussing one more very prominent note here is one of Lemon which is really fighting for dominance and could be argued, actually wins out. This note is simply too sharp for my liking. The wine also seems to want to convince me that it is a structured white yet when you really taste it it lacks the qualities necessary for that to be a reality.
Overall there is something "off" about this wine almost like it is very unbalanced and it is really throwing my Palate off big time wine lovers. Bottom line Sauvignon Blanc lovers there is so much better expressions of this varietal out there such as the 2017 (or 2018) White Sauvignon Blanc (https://desertwineguy.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-desert-wine-guy-2017-whitehaven.html) even if they are a couple of dollars more. On The Desert Wine Guy rating scale I am giving this wine 85 points which means that the wine is very simply, not worth mentioning. A wine that plain & simply needs to be relegated to the dumpster.

                                                                                                                  The Desert Wine Guy

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Tuesday, May 7, 2019

The Desert Wine Guy - 2016 Lanza Family Petite Sirah

2016 Lanza Family Petite Sirah + Chocolate

   This particular review is the second opportunity that I have had to review one of a few wines that I brought back from my recent trip to the Napa Valley a couple of weeks ago. Today I am reviewing the 2016 Lanza Family Petite Sirah wine. This wine was graciously given to me to review by Michelle Alameda who is the Tasting Room Manager at Wooden Valley Winery & Vineyards (https://www.woodenvalley.com/home-3/). When she handed me this wine I was really impressed with the confidence she exuded as she gave it to me. I remember thinking that this must be some wine I was holding in my hands for her to be so confident. The Wooden Valley Winery & Vineyards are located in the Suisun Valley AVA of Fairfield, California. By the way, as a side note I want to tell you that Wooden Valley Winery & Vineyards is also the very first winery that I ever went to which was way back in around 1999 and certainly way before The Desert Wine Guy was even a thought. I thought it would be super cool to go back and see what was going on there today as 1999 was also the  first and last time I visited the Napa Valley as well. The Winery looks like it hasn't changed in all these years and I was kind of surprised but happy to see that.
Welcome To Wooden Valley Winery
The one thing I did notice that had unfortunately changed was that the bordering property used to be a Pear Orchard that had the best pears and that was sadly gone. Let's learn a little more about the Wooden Valley Winery & Vineyard now. The first thing that I want to mention is that the Tasting Fee at the winery is $15 which is certainly within every ones budget and also in keeping with The Desert Wine Guys "wines for the Middle Class" founding principals. Wooden Valley Winery & Vineyards was originally founded back in 1933 by Salvador Brea who was a friend of Mario (Lanza). In 1944 Mario moved his family from Oakland, California and became partners with Salvador at the Wooden Valley Winery & Vineyards. In 1955 Mario became sole owner of the winery with the understanding that the wineries name remain the same. As families do, this one grew as well and Mario's oldest Grandson is now the Winemaker for the family. Today the Lanza Family grows around 300 Acres of Vineyards.
Wooden Valley Tasting Room
   So, now we move onto the wine up for review and see what it is all about and if Michelle's confidence is well founded. The wine won a Silver Medal at the SF Chronicle Wine competition which I am sure the family was very proud of. The wine retails for $45 at the winery and is the only place unfortunately that it is available. The wine sat in American Oak for 16 months and is a blend of 75% Petite Sirah and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon. By the way, there is a discrepancy as to the Alcohol percentage of this wine with the wineries product page (https://www.woodenvalley.com/product/2016-lanza-family-petite-sirah/) claiming 14.8% and the bottle itself saying 15.1%. According to their Website, all of their wines are Estate Wines which means the Lanza Family either owns the Vineyards or controls the Vineyards which the grapes for this wine came from. Let's move on to what you all should know by now is something that I think is a super important aspect to any wine in general and that is the label (initial presentation).
Lanza family
   Looking at the front label in general it is surprising how fairly plain it is, it doesn't say much of anything including what Varietal the wine is nor does it state the Vintage, both of these omissions I find to be weird. If I'm at the store and looking for a particular Varietal I would (unfortunately by the way) just skip over this wine as I might not feel like picking up the bottle to do the research of simply what varietal the wine is. That's is too much commitment for me at that point. The back label is completely different however and displays the Varietal as well as the Vintage. To me the back label is impressive and not only because it gives the information that the Consumer wants or needs to make a decision to purchase or not purchase the wine but because of the Fonts, the color of those Fonts as well as the other information it gives out.
   Moving ahead now onto the Bouquet of the wine I will tell you that a Black Peppercorn spice incredibly leaps right out of the glass at you and I'm loving it. There is a moderate yet certainly sufficient note of Leather which drifts up from the glass into my nose here as well and together I am expecting at least a bit of complexity to this wine on the palate. How about the impression of a super juicy cherry type note which rushes straight to the nose and which also seems to just insist on making it's presence known? On top of all this wonderful business is a semi rich note of Cocoa as well which I find fits in absolutely perfectly along with the other notes. Topping off the nose of this wine and I would indeed be remiss for not mentioning it is a note of nice Jam? All of these notes imply that the wine is going to be a fruit packed wine on the Palate and all I can say at this point is.......yummy.
   So let's now take an actual look at this wine because when I poured it in my glass I was rather surprised. A dark red, and I do mean a dark red is laid out before me in my glass. Sitting here staring at it I am in awe. It appears as if this wine is not showing any sign of visually mellowing or color softening at least as far as its visual presentation goes. Holy cow wine lovers, this wine is just appearing super confident in its appearance that is for sure. This is a wine which stains the fingers tips should you stick one in it or the edges of the lips when the wine comes in contact with them. The bottom line here so far between the Bouquet and the glass presentation is that this appears to be a wine that takes itself very seriously so far.

   Well here we are, onto the Palate. Folks, we need to talk. I cheated. Yes, I have already tasted the wine as I could not stand the temptation any longer. After having judged this wine on its Bouquet and its visual appearance I was just dying to get to taste it right away and since I am the boss (where is Mrs. Desert Wine Girl) I did :) My rating is......is.....well.... patience folks, patience is after all a virtue. My problem which I am definitely having now is where do I begin? This is a wine that displays such darkish and Black Fruit depth all around that I find it hard to start at one particular place. Let's go ahead and pick up at the front and center note of Jam. Don't get scared wine lovers as yes, there is certainly a fairly moderate Jammy note to this wine but the first thing that you should know is that it is much more then that and besides the jamminess is truly welcome here and after all, it is a Petite Sirah and also has other wonderful notes which you will see are only used to contribute to this wines overall awesomeness. Let's proceed, shall we? Baked Blueberry folks, have I gotten your attention now? A very serious and up front Baked Blueberry just comes barreling through onto the Palate and simply envelopes it. Give me a second please as I take this note in and enjoy it.
Okay, I'm back now and all I can say about the note is WOW! I want to talk about a super juicy Plum note which is on the Palate as well and which also is front and center. Together these two notes are massively intense for sure and envelope the Palate in that sense of jamminess that I got on the Nose. "Elegance", the Wooden Valley Winery & Vineyards website describes this wine as having "elegance" and that is indeed the perfect word to be used here. How you may ask can you have a wine which brings with it such a sense of Jamminess, have elegance at the same time? Well, there is no acidity to the wine which I believe might otherwise might have altered this wine and altered as well the presentation of its jamminess. The jamminess that I am speaking of is not some sugar packed, covering up bad notes jamminess, no this note is there for a reason and is fulfilling that reason perfectly. This is perhaps a little bit of how the "elegance" is possible. I don't know about you but I believe that the varietal itself dictates that the following note is present Yes indeed, there is a Black Peppercorn note that translates incredibly over and onto the Palate and yes, it is fairly pronounced. From the opening of the wine all the way through to the Finish and beyond (Toy Story anyone) the Black Peppercorn note makes itself known on the palate and causes a sort of break or a cut of the jamminess note, perfectly done. Tannins, let's talk for a minute. Being honest as always I will tell you that there isn't really much of anything to talk about concerning that note here but I did detect just a bit of Tannins and actually just enough to where they are noted but nothing that would alter or throw off the Palate or might even perhaps bother those of you who don't care for that aspect of a red wine. I would not say that Tannins in any way greatly shape this wine. I need to talk now about what really makes this wine what it is and that that big note of jamminess or ripe, black fruit fruit richness. For those of you who follow me on Social Media what I about to say you already know but for new readers I want to tell you that I absolutely detest a jammy Cabernet Sauvignon and so you would think that I would really dislike this particular wine however the opposite is actually true and might be for you as well. Yes, there is a definite richness to this wine but not to the extent that someone (like me) who dislikes Jammy or Fruit Forward wines would be put off. Perhaps I simply like the wine because of how the individual notes play off of one another, perhaps it's because the note actually it belongs here and as I said is not a cover up for bad wine or off tasting notes, I just don't know. When I say that this wine is different, I mean it.
Ron Lanza - Wooden Valley Owner
I need to discuss warm baking spices before I go because this wine is simply overflowing with that note as well. If you just sip this wine (as you should) and do a proper tasting yourself you will be blown away when the wine thrusts forward with the notes of baking spices. A note of smoothness mixed with smoke is presented here as these two notes come together and....yeah, get the wine. Please allow me to add one more note here and that is of a  black fruit, Bing Cherry that is exposed on the Palate and along with the baked Blueberry presented earlier is a big part of what makes this wine so great. This "dark fruit" by the way is largely what  I believe a Petite Sirah is all about.
Grapes Hanging at The Wooden valley Vineyard

   Towards the end of this review I shared a couple of sips of the wine along with a few bites of the Chocolate in the picture above with a couple of family members and I have to tell you that we were all in love with the pairing. My suggestion is to get the Chocolate and two bottles of the wine as one goes in the Cellar of course.This wine does indeed fit the bill for the Varietal and is an excellent representative of it as well. On The Desert Wine Guy rating scale I am giving this wine 93 points, I really enjoyed it.

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The Desert Wine Guy - 2021 Fox Run, Dry Riesling

     I don't know about you but for the most part, I am not into sweet white wines. There, I said it and I feel so much better. Now you ...