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Merriman's Delicious 2014 Chenin Blanc, Grapes From Columbia Valley, Washington, Wine From Carlton, Oregon

10/28/2017

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by Patrick Ogle

Merriman 2014 chenin blanc, from Columbia Valley, has a the nose has an unmistakable honey scent to it along with hints of white flowers. I think of that spring like first flower smell you get here in the midwest but not like the white flowers from the tropics. Flowers are something that sounds esoteric when it comes to wine but when you stop and smell and taste? Trust me it becomes something you sense. Honey, by the way, is the big thing on the nose here but the nose doesn't always tell you what you are going to taste.

The wine itself is wound up tight, tart and has a blazing acidity. Any "honey" you might taste is subsumed under lemon and if you let it warm up, some plum (I confess I initially thought "melon" but changed my mind as I thought on it). This wine has a  big mouth feel, it is substantial. I sort of felt maybe I had opened it too soon. While you could certainly hang onto this wine for some time and it would improve? It is sort of hard to resist now.

It is a wonderful food wine and can cut through rich foods but can also pair with lighter food and even spicy foods. I had it with spicy food as I consider eating food that isn't spicy akin to drinking bourbon without alcohol. It has the body and acidity to work with a variety of foods. Acidity, among other qualities, can make a wine "cut through" rich food.

Forget food for a moment; it is just a great wine to drink. All the descriptions and saying "this fruit or that fruit" or "the nose is this or that" is just yapping compared to the joy you get from a wine. This is a wine you will have fun drinking with or without food and with or without thinking about it deeply. You CAN examine this wine's complexity far more than I have but you need not.

The grapes from this wine come from Columbia Valley in Washington. The wine itself is made in Carlton, Oregon. Is chenin blanc a "surprising wine"? Perhaps not but recently I asked wine drinkers I know and it is less widely embraced than I thought. It is hardly in danger of extinction be examples from the Pacific Northwest are not terribly common. This wine comes from 40 year old vines. Merriman make their wine at The Carlton Winemaker's Studio.

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Zlatan Otok's Plavac Vhrunsko Vino, A Croatian Wine That Will Appeal To Zinfandel Drinkers

10/26/2017

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by Patrick Ogle

Zlatan Otok's Plavac Vrhunsko Vino 2012 is a wine from Croatia. It has, both on the nose and taste, something of stewed fruit in it. It has an almost pruney smell. That doesn't sound good but you can say the same thing about Amarones or Ripassos. The tannins are medium and fruit predominates. It isn't all stewed but certainly dark and ripe. This isn't that but it does
call to mind some wines from Italy--primitivos from the south. Some of you may know that primitivo is the grape known as zinfandel in the US of A.

Primitivo is often lower in alcohol and less fruity than the American versions and this is as well. But there is a bit of juicy, jaminess here and fans of Zins will not find this far outside their comfort zone. Indeed Plavac is a relative of the ancestor of Zinfandel (tribidrag/primitivo). The ancestral grape was, according to various sources, Crlenjak Kaštelanski. Plavac is a cross between this grape and another Croatian varietal, Dobričić. I figure the unpronounceable (to English speakers anyway) of Croatian wines may be a reason they are less known here. But plavak seems to be making inroads.

This wine is a good example of one that sounds exotic? But it is more familiar than alien to casual wine drinkers. Fans of zinfandel but also fans of the big fruity american blends that proliferate these days will like this wine. It isn't huge alcohol like some of those but it is no pipsqueak coming in at 14.2 %.

This isn't a subtle wine but it is one that people who like fruit forward wines with moderately high alcohol will appreciate. Don't be afraid of Croatian wines in general or plavak in particular.


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Minimus Omero Vineyard Willamette Valley Trousseau Noir 2016 An Accessible Wine From A Unique, Masterful, Oregon Producer

10/17/2017

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by Patrick Ogle

Minimus Omero Vineyard Willamette Valley Trousseau Noir 2016 is light in color and a little on the cloudy side. I thought there was some unusual earthiness on the nose. I cannot exactly define it. It wasn't all the usual things people say "forest floor", or "barnyard" or any of that. It was something different. It might be something more akin to
wildflower than dirt.

"Something different," of course defines what Minimus do with wine. When you taste this one there is cherry with pomegranate and nice tannins from mid palate to finish. I am not just reaching for an obscure fruit when I say pomegranate either. I really did get that, or it was the closest analog.

This trousseau isn't some bizarre wine that only natural wine freaks will love (and I use the term freak here with great affection). This is a natural, low intervention wine that the average wine drinker can get behind and love even. It is light and tart and has a nice acidity that I kept thinking of the things Id want to eat with it. Oddly I thought a nice salad with a vinaigrette dressing. But this also could be a fantastic wine for Thanksgiving fare. It has the acidity and is light enough to go with Turkey and ham at the same time. I don't eat meat so I cannot endorse you eating critters but I also don't tell people what to eat.

The wine is fresh, crisp and bright and aromatic. The floral taste here is subtle and you need to reach for it while tasting. I tried this with a tiny bit of a chill after I drank it. I'm not sure I would recommend this because the cold sort of blunts the complexity? We could serve reds at a slightly lower temperature than we sometimes do.

I was told to try this over a day or two. Fat fuckin chance. I drank it all on one night. BUT I can say that it did open and change even in the few hours I had it around.

This wine reminds me of why wine tastings kind of suck. Sure, you get to taste a lot of wine but the joy of a wine like this is having several glasses, some with and some without food. And also getting a feel for how it develops. Then there
is this,after I stopped thinking and got to drinking? This wine was even better.


Trousseau grape most associated with the Jura region in France. The grape is also found in Spain and Portugal. In the latter country it goes by the far more colorful name, bastardo. On the mainland and the Portuguese islands like Madeira has been used in fortified wines but these days this use isn’t extensive. You will see the grape called “rare” but that is a matter of perspective. It isn’t in danger of vanishing from the earth like some other grapes.

A friend suggested  that if wine is an art then Minimus are Picasso. I might say they are Dali but that is just a matter of taste. They are masters of creating compelling wines. Fans of natural wines already know Minimus and fans of all wine should know them too. You may want to be a little careful with some Minimus wines as they do experiment. Not every wine will be suited to every taste but ASK before you buy.


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Finca Parera "Khronos" Penedes Sumoll 2015, A Traditional Catalan Red That Makes A Complex, Unique Wine

10/13/2017

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 by Patrick Ogle

Finca Parera Khronos Penedes sumoll 2015 has a light garnet color, light enough that when you hold the wine up to light you can see a slight cloudiness.

The acidity seemed mild when I first tasted but that notion was erroneous. This wine will confound your first impressions on many levels.  It reminds me of lighter, slightly funky gamay or even some pais wines I've had but those are cop outs. The fruit is cranberry and perhaps sour cherry. It is tart and my first impression of roundness was wrong. The acidity is strong[It is just
unusual  and hard to peg in that it seems subsumed in the fruit.

It is also unusual in that I felt the fruit stood out more than it often does in lighter bodied wines. It is a unique wine. Tannins appear mid palate and then jump up and slap you at the end,not on the first sip, that was all fruit to me. Yet when air gets to this? It opens in other odd ways. You will sense more of the acidity. The fruit is still there. Perhaps as the tannins subside with oxygen the acid jumps up and screams "I am here you asshole!" But the tannins remain strong on the finish.

The evolution with air is unusual. The wine seems to expand as it opens up, become fuller. I felt like the acid and tannins became more obvious after air--which is a bit odd. How many wines seem to become more brawny with air? I feel like I need a chemist to explain this wine to me.

You don't need one though. It is complex AND delicious so you can just drink it.

This will never be wines fans of "The Prisoner" will love though. There is nuance here and expanding flavors, nuances that no big, sweet, simple, high alcohol fruit bomb can match. It is subtle and unique and not in any way off-putting. Gamay/Beaujolais is an easy comparison but this ISN'T that. The vineyard is also certified Biodynamic. I will repeat what I write all the the time; this wine is its own thing. It is sumoll. It is Penedes.

Grapes like sumoll were (and probably still are) being supplanted by "international varietals" like cabernet sauvignon and merlot. Maybe this is changing. A few years back no one was growing godello; now more and more Spanish producers are. Sumoll is a Catalan wine and it is to be hoped winemakers there will expand on the small amount of acreage dedicated to it. At the moment there is less than 250 acres of sumoll growing in Spain. The grape has a reputation as difficult to grow and finicky when making wine.

Finca Parera demonstrate the effort is worth
it.

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    WINE!

    There are thousands of wine grapes and many places that grow great wines. Why not find out about some surprising wines from surprising places?

    NOTE-Until recently I did not capitalize the names of varietal grapes (as a matter of style) but for a variety of reasons as of February, 2018 we will capitalize but I am not going back and altering the previous style!!!


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