Shop Review: The Wine Seller

I took a little jaunt across Puget Sound to Port Townsend over the long weekend. Among other things, I visited The Wine Seller. Given that Port Townsend is part tourist destination and part artist colony (okay - they have the very cool wooden boat school, a thriving boat industry, and host the annual Wooden Boat Festival each summer), I really expected to find a snobby, pretentious, over-priced wine shop. I was pleasantly surprised to the contrary. The wine shop is very well stocked with wines of all price ranges (I think I did see something in the $1200 price range). I walked away with five bottles of wine and a Vacu Vin Rapid Wine Cooler for a grand total of $88. Look for reviews of the wines and the cooler in upcoming weeks.

The gentleman working at the store was very attentive to all of the customers despite the fact that he was working alone and that there were about seven people in the store at the time.

The store was reasonably well laid out, but there were a few shelves that seemed to be a mishmash of seemingly unrelated wines. They also has some Reidel stemware that looked like it hadn't been dusted in months (to be fair, it was the top shelf that looked neglected, and at 6'6" that kind of thing jumps out at me where nobody else would likely notice it).

If you're in Port Townsend, I recommend paying them a visit.

Bridlewood 2004 Reserve Syrah

The Winery: Bridlewood
The Wine: 2004 Reserve Syrah
The Price: $15.99 at QFC (on sale - regularly priced at $24.99)

Bridlewood is a California winery located in Santa Barbara County. They have fours tiers of wines (Winner's Circle, Estate, Reserve and Central Coast).

The bottle for this wine is sealed with a natural cork, garnering points from the beginning. The wine is a dark ruby color.

The wine has aromas of black pepper, blackberries, tobacco and prunes.

The wine has a pronounced pepper flavor, with a hint of tobacco and a berry flavor on the finish. It is a fairly dry wine, and has less of a fruity flavor than I tend to look for in a wine.

This is a very interesting wine. Technically speaking, I think it's a very good, well-crafted wine. I'm torn between whether I actually like it, however. I take a sip and don't care for it. Then I take another sip and I like it. This wine is fairly bold, and would stand up well against strong foods, or even a mild cigar.

MacMurray Ranch 2006 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

The Winery: MacMurray Ranch
The Wine: 2006 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir
The Price: $21.99 at QFC (on sale - regular price is $29.99)

Just when I notice a trend in corks, along comes MacMurray Ranch to be the exception. In my last review I commented that I noticed that wines from Spain tend to have corks that are less tight in the bottle than wines from the U.S., but the MacMurray cork was more like the wines from Spain than domestic wines.

It bears pointing out that MacMurray Ranch offers two 2006 Pinot Noirs - this one and the Central Coast. The Central Coast Pinot Noir was $8 less than the Sonoma Coast. So if you decide to try the MacMurray Ranch based on this review, make sure you get the correct wine.

The wine is a dark ruby color, which is pretty much how all of my Pinot Noir reviews start.

The wine has aromas of cherries, berries and a hint of vanilla. It has a very rich, smooth scent.
It has flavors of dried cherries, plums and blackberries with a very subtle vanilla finish.
This wine is absolutely delicious. MacMurray Ranch really did an excellent job with this wine. For the money, this wine is a great value, particularly while it's on sale.

Marqués de Riscal 2003 Reserva

The Winery: Marqués de Riscal
The Wine: 2003 Reserva
The Price: $16.99 on sale at QFC (regular price is $24.99).

The use of superlatives in the name of the wine means different things depending on the origin of the wine. This wine is from Spain where Reserva is a regulated term to indicate that the wine has been aged longer in the barrel and in the bottle before being released. The Reserva from Marqués de Riscal spends nearly two years in American Oak barrels before bottling.

This wine comes with a wire net around the bottle. So far as I can tell the net serves only to dress up the bottle. One thing that I've noticed about the wines that I've purchased from Spain is that the corks tend to be less snug in the bottle than American wines. They're not loose, but they don't have the same death-grip on the bottle like many American wines. I've been thinking a lot about how wine is capped, so if I can find some meaningful information, perhaps that would be in interesting topic for a future post.

On to the wine.

This wine is a dark ruby color. The predominant scent is prune followed by blackberry with a chocolate undertone.

The wine has a sweeter taste than I expected. It has prune and berry flavors with a bit of a bite. It's a good wine now, but I think that an additional few years of aging would improve it, bringing it from a good wine to a great wine. If I were serving it today, I would pair it with something fairly substantial that could hold up to its bold flavors - maybe spaghetti with a hearty sauce or maybe even chili (gasp...did the heathen just suggest wine with chili?).

I think this is a wine I'll stock up on to see how well it really does age. My expectation is that it will age very well.

Drinkology Wine: A Guide to the Grape

The Book: Drinkology Wine: A Guide to the Grape
The Author: James Waller
The Price: $18.00 at Amazon.com

This book is an excellent primer on whine. It has become my go-to wine reference. The book is written in a light, non-pretentious manner, and is easily understood by the newest of wine drinkers. The second chapter gives a very good exposure to the vocabulary of wine, quickly exposing the reader to the terminology of wine.

I can't think of a single wine-related topic that was left out of this book. It covers grape growing, harvesting, fermentation. There's a section on corkscrews and a section on winery tours. Even the most casual of wine drinkers will find this book to be fascinating and very educational. The writing style is easy to read and light-hearted.

I really appreciate the small size of this book - it's only ~6" X 4". It's small enough to tuck into a backpack or purse while on a winery tour or vacation or carry with you when you hit the wine store. For the cost of a decent bottle of wine, this book gives you a vast knowledge of wine.

The Wine Aroma Wheel

In a never-ending quest to improve my wine reviews, I recently ordered a Wine Aroma Wheel. The Wine Aroma Wheel is a tool to aid in describing the aromas associated with wines. There are three tiers to the wheel, moving from general (fruity, chemical, floral, etc) to specific (black pepper, walnut, bacon {and I SOOOOOOO want to find a bacon scented wine!}).

The obverse side of the wheel explains how to use the wheel and denotes the characteristics of common wine varietals. I'm hoping that the wheel will expand the adjectives I use to describe the wines that I review.

Here's the thing. I ordered a couple of extra wine wheels. I intend on giving them out as prizes for upcoming contests on the site. If anybody has any suggestions on compelling suggestions, I'd love to hear from you.

Gaetano D'Aquino 2004 Chianti Riserva

The Winery: Gaetano D'Aquino
The Winery: 2004 Chianti Riserva
The Price: $5.99 at Trader Joe's

I've been reviewing mostly wines from the U.S. lately, so it's high time for an Italian wine.

Chianti is not a wine I normally drink at home. I often drink it when I'm out for Italian food - particularly when I'm out someplace like Buca Di Beppo.

This Chianti is dark ruby in color. The wine has scents of blackberry and prunes.

The wine primarily has a cherry flavor with a subtle berry undertone and a slight peppery bite on the finish.

This is a true bargain wine. At $5.99 for a bottle, you can't go wrong. I'll definitely be buying more of this. The wine compares quite favorably with wines costing 2-3 times as much.