Red Belly Black Shiraz 2008

I wasn't lying last time when I said I would write about something bolder in the next post last time. This post's wine is a shiraz from southern Australia, a dramatic shift from the recent pinot noir streak that I've been on. Shiraz (also known as Syrah,) is an awesomely powerful grape, it is often added to other wines in blends for strength and to a lesser extent, body. Australia, as a winemaking region, encompasses a large variety of microclimates, some extremely hot, some rather cold. Interestingly, the wine I'm reviewing today has grapes from different vineyards, one from a hot area, and one from a cold one. This, according to the back label of the bottle, gives the wine a unique balance.

So! The wine of this post is the Red Belly Black Shiraz from 2008. In color, this wine was phenomenal. It had an exciting dark depth in its heart, as well as a rather seductive violet/red hue around the glass. In the right light you can see your fingers at the other end of the glass, but you've got to drink your way down to a third of the glass to get that to happen. The legs were decent, and the wine left a charming stein on the glass as the wine was drunk.

Aromatically, this wine was everything you'd dream for in a bold wine. Black currant, wild berries, and an amazing oak coating it all. The oak by the way, in its engagement with the dark fruit of the shiraz grape, creates an enchanting dark chocolate, probably the best note of dark chocolate in a wine that I've ever had. It was richly decadent and thick. I honestly couldn't have asked for anything else in this type of a wine.

In flavor, the wine also impressed. Dark, and I mean, black-to-black violet, fruits really come in swinging with serious force. A mild spice also comes in on the finish, which really rounds the wine together. Some slight plum action also came through, but mostly the black currant and wild berries were the at the front of this wine. Combine that with the rich dark chocolate, and all your dreams of pleasure food come true. On top of that, add a boldly full body that packs a punch and some silky tannins, and you're on cloud nine.

If there was something wrong with this wine, it would be that it was too sexy to handle. I can definitely picture Satan tempting the masses to drink from his forbidden flask, which of course would contain the 2008 Red Belly Black Shiraz. I personally can't have a wine like this every night, just because after a while this much power can wear me down. Additionally, the wine boasts a 14.5% alcohol percentage, which honestly, takes a toll on a man. Another cool thing about this wine is the fact that the grapes come from both a hot and a colder vineyard, which you can totally see. If all the grapes came from the hot vineyard, this wine would have been way too powerful and full, to the point where the fruit gets overshadowed by an ever-higher alcohol percentage. An A+ wine in my books, the Angove winemakers (the family that produces this wine,) did a great job, and I'm excited to see what they put out in the future!

Dom Brunet Pinot Noir 2009

I think have pinot noir fever this week, because this is now the third pinot in a row that I'm talking about. What can I say? The stuff's yummy. Plus, it just so happened that one of the bottles of the wine I'm reviewing got shipped to the store with a dirty label, so I was able to take it home last night. Free wine, I'll drink to that!

This is a popular wine at San Pietro Wine & Spirits, retailing around $11 bucks a bottle while packing some awesome value-power in terms of quality. The wine I'm writing about today, if you somehow missed the title of this post, is the 2009 Domaine Brunet Pinot Noir. This wine hails from the Languedoc-Rousillon region of France, which is located on the southern end of the country, stretching towards the Spanish border. The region experiences a strong Mediterranean climate. That means sunny days and awesomely cool nights- a sign of a great viticultural area.

The color of the wine was, to put it bluntly, pretty simple. A light transparent red with no real depth. The legs on the wine were charming, but nothing to go crazy over. They might have been a little too thick, but they spread themselves with consistent spacing. However bland the wine may have looked though wasn't really a big problem for me though, I wasn't exactly expecting something phenomenal.

In aroma the wine was, opposed to its appearance, spectacular. At first I could make out some red fruits, mainly cherries and black currant. After a while though, the pinot's marriage with the French oak revealed itself, culminating in a lovely, thick scent of dark chocolate. Upon further inspection, which is always a lot of fun, I was able to make out a pistachio-spread type scent that came through beautifully. If you've never had pistachio spread, you should. It's like Nutella times nine-thousand double-rainbows (for a whopping total of eighteen-thousand rainbows.) It was pretty great.

The flavor also didn't disappoint, showing an early sweetness on the initial tongue contact. Once again the cherry and black currant berry flavors came through nicely throughout the mid palate and well into the finish. Begining towards the end of the mid-palate and all the way to the end of the smooth finish came the rich barrique oak which brought about a sweet woodenness along with those dark chocolate notes. As usual, the pinot's body was mildly light (perhaps medium-bodied,) and it possessed soft tannins that went well with my roasted eggplants and tomatoes.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Dom Brunet is a smart buy. Its yummy, it has rich aromatics, and most importantly it put a smile on my face. At any rate, I'll try to get something other than a pinot noir to review for the next post. Perhaps something a bit stronger and bolder. Stay tuned, fellas! Thanks for reading!

Jules Taylor Pinot Noir 2009

Okay so if I'm not mistaken, last week we did an Oregon pinot noir. Let's say we follow that up with a New Zealand pinot noir? I'd like to start this post off by saying that New Zealand wines are ON THE RISE. Everybody already acknowledges their Sauvignon Blanc and cabernet, and it's looking like pinot could be the third.

So our wine for this episode is the Jules Taylor "The Wrekin" Pinot Noir 2009 from New Zealand's Marlborough wine region. Marlborough is the area of New Zealand that is currently producing some of the absolute best Sauvignon Blanc in the New World. Marlborough is located on the northern tip of the southern New Zealand island. The area experiences an extremely sunny growing season that attributes to bright and feisty characteristics in their wines.

Don't let the boring bottle label fool you, this wine as some nice in-glass features. It has a bright ruby red with some purple tints hiding around the edges of the glass. It's very light and you can tell that in terms of body and weight, the color will translate into a lighter pinot- which should be the case because New Zealand (Marlborough, especially) pinots are lighter-bodied than your typical pinot. If there's one thing I didn't like about this wine, it's that the structure was a little pedestrian. You can tell by the legs, which are flabbily thin and scattered with no pattern around the glass. You feel this later when you taste it.

Wait about ten minutes to really start nosing and tasting this wine, trust me. At least for me, the initial Sniff & Sip was pretty tight and uninteresting. The aromas were bitter and closed and the flavor just wasn't there yet.

Now we can get into the wine's aromas. As you recall last week's episode, the Acrobat pinot noir had some crazy tobacco leaf notes. This pinot on the other hand, has an ever so slight tobacco leaf aroma. What I'm trying to show you is how the climate comes into play. In the Jules Taylor I'm picking up more berries and cassis notes rather than tobacco and leather. There's a lovely elegant oak coming into play as well, but that doesn't excite me as much as the fruit does. I should also note that on the second day of tasting this wine I picked up some cedar-esque scents, playing around with some vanilla notes. And it was nice.

So if Oregon is cold and wet and you get tobacco and leather notes in the Acrobat Pinot Noir (last week's pinot,) you can say that cooler climates produce very terroir-driven characteristics in wine. On the other hand, a super-sunny area such as Marlborough will bring you fruit-bombs, where the terror is still important, but it takes a back seat to the natural fruitiness of the perfectly ripe grape.

So in flavor, we see a similar trend. The fruit dominates the initial flavor and the mid-palate. Once again, red berries and perhaps pitted red fruits, maybe plum-skins are the fruit flavors. The leather and oakyness (oakyness is not a real word, but it should be) is still there though, creating a pleasantly bitter finish to counteract the sweet begining. However I will say that no matter how fruity the wine is, it's relatively dry. You can feel your tongue react to the acidity and your throat can surely feel the dryness and the 14.5% alcohol content. Another thing to note is the wine's light body and velvety texture, which is a deadly combination if you ask me. I personally prefer a heavier bodied wine with a velvety texture, but here you get to experience what its like to have a "purple-flavored" cloud in your mouth. Its pretty cool.

This pinot was pretty good. I'd score her an 85. The Wine Enthusiast gave her a full 90, but I wouldn't go that far. As of yet, my favorite pinot noir so far was the Jermann Blau & Blau. This wine and the Jermann are dramatically different, but they get different jobs done. I'd very much enjoy the Jules Taylor any day of the week. A solid wine, but I'm tired of this average stuff for now. Expect something superb in the next post. See you later alligators!

Acrobat Pinot Noir 2010

Why hello everybody! I know exactly what you're all thinking, It's about time I review another pinot noir, huh, guys? Well I agree, great insight, fellas!

The 2010 Acrobat Pinot Noir from Oregon state is the Wine Noob's wine of the day. Pretty good wine, if I do say so myself. Coming from Oregon, the vineyard experiences a much cooler and wetter climate than the wines I've reviewed in the past, so I'm excited to show you guys how that climate comes into play to create something radically different than wines from a more temperate climate.

So the wine's color was very light, a bright garnet red that showed no signs of depth or darkness. I could easily see right through the liquid, even from the bottom of the glass. It actually looked a little watery, to tell you the truth. I was a little hesitant, I thought that the wine would be flabby and uninteresting, but don't make the same mistake I did, because boy was I wrong.

The aromas in this wine were totally in your face. The nose was bold and strong. Some wines take me a while to dissect aromatically, but not this one. The first whiff took me to my aunt's farm in Italy, in the middle of the tobacco fields. I didn't necessarily smell barnyard/hay type smells, but I smelt a rich and flavorful tobacco. Not cigarette/cigar tobacco though; the sticky, pungent, tobacco leaf tobacco. There was also some leather action coming in with the oak. The power of the tobacco and leather totally washed out whatever fruit this wine had, which should be a lot considering how young it is.

In flavor, the fruit was almost nonexistent. Only after three sips, at ten minute intervals, did I get any fruit notes. Blueberry mostly, but an ever so slight black raspberry also came through. What you mostly taste is the lovely tobacco leaf flavor, combined with a rich spiciness that lasts throughout the mid palate well into the finish. In terms of mouthfeel, this pinot noir disappointed just a little bit. It was soft and lush, yet neither silky nor velvety, which is what I personally look for in a pinot.

So what's the final verdict? Well that's up to you guys. If you're kind enough, email me or somehow contact me and let me know if you'd pass on this tobacco/leathery wine for a fruit-bomb instead. I'd really like to know. I personally would enjoy this wine, but I won't be taking it to a friend's house for their birthday. Marco "The Wine Noob" Bruno gives this wine a thumbs-up for at-home consumption. At any rate, take care, you scoundrels!

Terrabianca "Croce" Chianti Classico 2005 Riserva

Ah! Fellas I hope you had a nice Easter weekend, because mine was splendid! I tried about four new wines this weekend and I just couldn't decide which one to write about. After a long and gruesome series of trials and tribulations (which took about a day,) I decided to write about the wine I had on Easter Sunday, the Terrabianca "Croce" Chianti Classico 2005 Riserva.

This is my second chianti review, so I'm assuming it'd be a nice opportunity to dig deeper into the always interesting world of chianti. This is a Chianti Classico, which means it comes from the original area of Chianti in Tuscany. When you read just "Chianti" on the wine label, its referring to the expanded area around the Chianti Classico region that started the blend. The wine is also a single-vineyard wine, hence the "Croce" name after the wine producer name, Terrabianca. Single-vineyard wines are supposedly of higher quality and concentration than multi-vineyard wines (of course, this is just another wine-world generalization.)

So lets get to it. I'll start off by saying that a 2005 chianti is a little bit on the older side for a chianti, they're typically meant to be had younger than this one. It was also in a magnum, 1.5 liter bottle, so we had to let it breath for about an hour before drinking it.

Its color was nice, dark red with a slim orange hue on the outer rim. What struck me in the color was that it was a burgundy red, however the color burgundy, as far as I know, is exclusive to French Burgundy wines. I don't know why that is, but hey, I'm a novice here, despite what you may think.

The nose is where this wine got me (as most chiantis will.) This particular wine is composed of 97% sangioveto and 3% canaiolo grapes. The sangioveto grape is a genetic clone of the sangiovese grape, allowing for the deep and complex aromas, while the canaiolo is responsible for bringing acidity, body, and color to the rest of the wine. I was bull-rushed with forest-green notes deep within the bouquet, an elegant tobacco from the light oak, and a possible mint/cedar combination coming in at the end. There was also the scent of dried, dark fruits up front, probably what you'd notice at first if you don't look for anything else. It was a fun wine to sniff while it was opening up in the glass.

The flavor was great, displaying aged fruits including: ripe plums, blackberries, and raspberries. The raspberry might be debatable, but I'm not too familiar with wild forest berries, which is what I assume that flavor really was. There were some light tannins, that honestly, by glass four, got to me. Luckily I had some cheesy lasagna to break them down. As most chiantis are, this chianti was also on the lighter side, but it had enough body to be considered a medium-bodied wine.

I enjoyed the wine a lot, then again, its hard to have a bad wine when my father's the one picking the wine for dinner. As the two of us had a final glass of the wine together outside with a cigar, he told me something pretty nice. We had spent the entire meal discussing this wine, figuring it out, noticing the little nuances as they unfurled with our meal, but my father told me, "Wine... wine is like a woman. As soon as you figure it out, you're lost all over again. It's such a mysterious thing... so in the end the important thing is to just enjoy it while it lasts." Boy my dad sure is profound by the end of the bottle. He's right though, with each glass the wine showed something else, and as soon as we thought we got it- something else would come out of no where, forcing us to start all over again. What really mattered is that we had a good time breaking it down. 'Till next time, guys!

Ca'Marcanda Gaja Promis 2009

HEY everybody! I had a Gaja tonight. A freaking Angelo Gaja (pronounced gah-yah.) For those of you who don't know, Angelo Gaja is THE Italian winemaker, the guy that brought fine Italian wine into the international spotlight back in the mid 1900s. Known primarily as a producer of Barolo and Barbaresco in Piedmont, Gaja plays a serious game in Tuscany too. The wine I had was one of his super tuscans, a wine that historically scores in the 90s- the Ca'Marcanda Gaja Promis 2009.

On a not so interesting note (but still noteworthy,) I had this super tuscan tonight after having a glass of the United States' very first, original pinot noir. I know none of you will be laughing at this, but the funny thing is that the super tuscan felt more like a pinot than the actual pinot that I had. I was in stitches. A blend consisting of sangiovese, merlot, and syrah outdid a pinot noir in the silky texture department. Who would have thunk it?

Well okydokes. The color of the wine was a light garnet, showing some widely spaced legs (get your minds out of the gutter, you rotten children!) throughout the height of my glass. See-though, yet deep in the right light, the wine was a pretty gal. It was also very uniform, stretching the wine across the glass to the tip, there was little dilution, it was a solid color throughout.

As I hit the nose, no singular thing in particular came through. Rather, there was an awesome balance of different dark fruits, tobacco, forest notes, and raspberry jam. Not one of these characteristics stepped in front of the other- this young super tuscan is NOT messing around. I could only imagine what this wine could do in 8-10 years, aromatically at least.

Taking my first sip as I wolfed down my homemade fusilli (with some lovely tomato sauce and grated parmesan cheese,) I could see how Italian wines really can't be beat when being paired with food. I also had another glass of the stuff later outside with a cigarette, understanding further how Italian wine is truly an awesome compliment to cigars and cigarettes. The sangiovese brought me the succulent dark fruit and tobacco flavors, the syrah brought me the power and light acidity, and the merlot brought the stuff together, creating a roundness and smoothness, both throughout the mid palate and the finish. That finish by the way, was nice and long. The tannins also show up pretty nicely for a little while, like a cameo, for lack of a better word. These flavors and textures really came together to make something fun to drink (the 13.5% alcohol also helped.)

Well oh man, my first Gaja critique. To be completely honest, I don't feel worthy. Because of that, I kept it short and sweet. What I learned from this wine is that Italian wines can be had young, and that "the big guys" (big wine producers,) don't mess around. I had always known that, but this wine reminded me of it. For a while I had been looking at big time values for small bucks, but there's a reason those wines aren't as coveted as the Gaja's. I love the little guys, there's a huge chunk of my heart devoted to them, but these big guys are something totally out of this world.