Surprising Wines
  • Wine
  • Wine Chat and Terms
  • Interviews
  • About

Day Wine's "Running Bare" 2013 Blend Mixes Cab Franc, Malbec And Tannat From Oregon's Applegate Valley AVA

12/14/2015

1 Comment

 
Picture

by Patrick Ogle


Day Wines' Running Bare 2013 blend has some bite to it and maybe could use a little air--a mix of cab franc, malbec and tannat the wine isn't really heavy or high alcohol. But it lets you know it is THERE, like a slap in the face. This is especially true right out of the bottle. 

Taste this wine as it develops with contact to air. It is good right out of the bottle, 20 minutes later, an hour later and it mellows out seriously the next day. This wine comes from Mae's Vinyard in Applegate Valley AVA, Oregon.

This is a wine that you may change your opinion about when you have it a few times but those opinions will never be negative. One reason to never form a solid opinion when having it at a tasting is that a  little  taste is different from a glass or a bottle with friends. It reminds me of how when you hear a song you really like you may have a different feeling about it when you hear it with someone else.

Day makes a series of pinot noirs with quite different characteristics but this is something different, something unique. The blend is something others have done (although Ive never had it) but I bet this one is different from those blends --for one they'd originate in France.

Tannat is a wine that has a lot of tannins and is known to be heavy, gigantic in body and, hence, has been considered somewhat unapproachable. French tannats can also be quite expensive. They grow the grape in South America; Uruguay has adopted the grape as its own and it is also found in Argentina. Malbec can also be a big bodied wine while cabernet franc usually has a somewhat lighter profile. Given that I'd guess cab franc makes up the largest part of this blend (I checked and it makes up 50 percent).

You may notice the bottle is signed; I asked Brianne Day to sign it for me because she truly is a wine rock star.

Find out specifics HERE.

1 Comment

Lisennes Cremant De Bordeaux--A Lovely Low-Cost French Sparkler From Outside Champagne

8/20/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
by Patrick Ogle

Château de Lisenne
's Bulles de Lisennes Cremant de Bordeaux is a French sparkling wine. You may ask; French sparkler doesn't that make it a Champagne? Not necessarily because if it sparkles and isn't from Champagne? It isn't a Champagne.

Cremants are sparkling wines from France (and in one case Luxembourg) that are not made in Champagne. Some people reading this are, no doubt, aware of this but others may not be (yes, I also know locales outside France have taken to using the term “cremant”). Let me state this clearly; do not be afraid of cremants! They can be wonderful wines and they are generally made using the same method as in Champagne. The location they come from and the grapes used will often be different from the three or four main grapes used in Champagne (seven are allowed). You will also find cremants using pinot noir and chardonnay just like Champagne.

This particular cremant has the yeasty taste you often find in Champagnes. The acid is also high and the bubbles fine. Small, fine bubbles are a good thing; you don't want a sparkling wine with big Coca Cola bubbles.

There are eight white grapes and six red permitted in Bordeaux. Three of those grapes are used to make this wine: muscadelle, semillon and cabernet franc. Cab franc may seem like an unusual choice to use in a white sparkling wine but it certainly works here.

Fruit-wise I have a hard time not writing “grapefruit” here. It is a flavor that pops up quite a bit in white wine descriptions (sometimes more referring to the pith than the fruit itself). It applies here and this flavor mixes with floral elements. Citrus blossoms spring to mind. Think of taking a deep breath in an orange grove in the fall.

I worked at a wine shop that was selling this wine for $21 a bottle. When I tasted it I thought $21 was the store's cost; that is how highly I thought of this wine. I've had Grower Champagnes I didn't like as much.

$18-22

Picture
0 Comments

Forty Winks Cabernet Frank From Michigan May Change Your Mind About Wines From The Wolverine State

4/7/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
by Patrick Ogle

Michigan isn’t a spot that usually springs to mind when thinking of wine. And if you, like me, seek out wines from offbeat areas you may have had some truly vile wines from the Wolverine State. This Forty Winks cabernet franc will wash any bad taste from Michigan out of your mouth.

This cabernet franc has some acidity; which is not uncommon with the grape, one of the parent grapes of cabernet sauvignon. It has some tannin to it too and the fairly young wine mellows a bit with some air.

This wine, to me, improves with air and when it gets that? It mellows and is a nice medium bodied wine that doesn’t have much in the way of fruitiness (perhaps you can detect cranberry). I’d drink this with food. As a pretty much life-long vegetarian I am not going to recommend meat but something in a red sauce—from Italian to a red curry—might be good with this wine.  A sauce with some acid is a good match for this wine which
is an especially good one for the price.

Picture
wine diamonds
Suggesting a wine is tannic and acidic both raises the question; how do you tell the difference?

Trying to figure out what is acid and what is tannin is something you will often be told is “easy.” That is a little bit of glibness perhaps. It may not be difficult but it isn’t intuitive either.

The best way to put it (I hope) is that tannins create the same sort of feeling you might get when eating pomegranate (my favorite example).  When you taste a wine and immediately after drinking you may feel a sensation of drying in your mouth; that is the tannins. This is sometimes described as bitterness.

Acid is, well, acidic, like biting an orange skin. But since acid in wine is balanced by other factors than JUST the acid the sensation isn’t generally as unpleasant! This wine had what are called “wine diamonds” on the cork when I pulled it out; if you see this, do not despair! It does not mean the wine is bad. It is the result of tartaric acid becoming solidified. Usually this means the wine gets less acidic but it also means there was acid present. There are a number of different acids in wine but let’s not get into that.

Tannins are affected by air and wine changes with exposure to it.  Up to a point, with certain wines, this is a good thing (more important with red). As noted this wine needs some air.  Does acid change with air? Some do, the chemically volatile ones, but others are more reticent to change.

I would note that when I drink and write about these wines I purposefully do not try to do it like it is at a wine tasting. Is that how YOU open a bottle of wine and drink it? Keep in mind I am not criticizing wine tastings. When most of us pop out to the store and grab a bottle we don’t follow wine tasting protocols either. We may be noshing on something while we open a bottle without thinking about it. We don’t sniff and slurp small amounts of wine—we crack it open and drink it.  How I do this might change how I interpret a wine—and it would be different from how I might interpret a wine in a formal wine tasting environment.

You often see cabernet franc grown in colder, sometimes even hostile, climates. Michigan qualifies as that for grapes. The grape also adapts well in different soils—something more finicky grapes often won’t do. The cab franc grape also is known as one that ripens more reliably than most other reds. This is far from the only good Michigan wine by they way--they grow some truly good rieslings as well.

$14-15
Picture
0 Comments

    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!!!


    Archives

    August 2022
    July 2022
    September 2021
    May 2021
    August 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    November 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

    Categories

    All
    Albana
    Albanello
    Albarino
    Alicante Bouschet
    Aligote
    Arneis
    Auxerrois
    Baga
    Barbera
    Bekari
    Blaufrankisch
    Blend
    Brachetto
    Cabernet Franc
    Cabernet Sauvignon
    Caladoc
    Carignan
    Catawba
    Centesimino
    Chambourcin
    Chardonel
    Chardonnay
    Chasselas
    Chenin Blanc
    Chinuri
    Cinsault
    Clairette Blanche
    Counoise
    Debina
    Dolcetto
    Frappato
    Fruit Wine
    Furmint
    Gamay
    Gamay Teinturier
    Garrut
    Gewurztraminer
    Glera
    Godello
    Grechetto
    Grenache
    Grenache Blanc
    Grenache Gris
    Grignolino
    Grolleau
    Gros Manseng
    Gruner Veltliner
    Italy
    Jacquère
    Kerner
    Lambrusco
    Limniona
    Listan
    Malbec
    Malvasia
    Malvasia Bianca
    Malvasia De Sitges
    Marsanne
    Marsellan
    Mataossu
    Mavrud
    Melon De Bourgogne
    Mission Grape
    Mourvedre/Monastrell
    Müller-Thurgau
    Muscadelle
    Muscadine
    Muscat
    Muscat Of Alexandria
    Muscat Of Hamburg
    Nascetta
    Nerello Mascalese
    Orangetraube
    Orange Wine
    Pais
    Parellada
    Pedro Ximenez
    Petit Courbu
    Petit Manseng
    Pet Nat
    Pineau D' Aunis
    Pinot Blanc
    Pinot Grigio
    Pinot Gris
    Pinot Meunier
    Pinot Noir
    Plavak
    Prosecco
    Red
    Ribolla Gialla
    Riesling
    Robola
    Romorantin
    Rose
    Rosé
    Roussanne
    Savagnin
    Sciaccarellu
    Semillon
    Skin Contact
    Sparkling
    St. Laurent
    Sumoll
    Sylvaner
    Symphony
    Syrah
    T. Amarela
    Tannat
    Tricadeira Preta
    Trollinger
    Trousseau Gris
    Trousseau Noir
    Valdiguié
    Valdiguié
    Verdeca
    Verdejo
    Verdelho
    Video
    Viognier
    Viura/Macabeo
    Vlahiko
    White
    Xarel Lo
    Xarel-Lo
    Xarel-lo Vermell
    Xinomavro
    Xynisteri
    Zinfandel
    Zweigelt

    RSS Feed

      We'd love to hear from you...(probably)...

    Submit