Recession Review: Chariot 2006 Gypsy

The Winery: Chariot Wines
The Wine: 2006 Gypsy
The Price: $5.99 at Trader Joe's

This is the first of my Recession Reviews. As I previously stated, the bar for these wines is lower than for my normal reviews.

Chariot Wines is a winery who apparently has long-neglected their website. It looks like they once intended to open an online store, but abandoned that idea. The most recent wine listed on their web page is a 2003 Pinot Grigio.

The bottle gives no indication as to what grapes this wine is made from. I'm assuming it's a blend of some sort.

The wine has an actual natural cork. At this price I usually expect either a synthetic cork or screw-top.

The wine is deep red in color. It has predominantly a cherry aroma to it. This is not a bad wine at all. It has cherry and blackberry flavors with a pronounced pepper finish. The wine is sweeter than most reds that I've sampled, but the sweetness counteracts the pepper flavor. Decanting and letting the wine breathe for about an hour greatly diminished the pepper flavor and really allowed the flavor of the wine to open up. This may be the best sub-$10 wine I've ever had.

Coming Soon - Recession Reviews

Inspired by the down economy, I've decided that I'm going to add an additional review each week. The standards for reviewing these wines will be lower than in my typical reviews. The wines that will be included in the Recession Reviews will be wines in the $8 and under range. The price will be what I paid. So if I find $15 wine on sale for $7.99, it falls in the range.

I haven't figured out yet what day of the week I will be typically doing the Recession Reviews, nor have I nailed down the exact details of the reviews. I do intend to start on them within the next week.

Des Voigne Cellars San Remo 2006 Sangiovese

The Winery: Des Voigne Cellars
The Wine: San Remo 2006 Sangiovese
The Price: Not certain, but I *think* it was $26 at Jack Cellars

I was reading recently about Sangiovese grapes. The grapes tend to be high in tannins and acid, but usually result in wines that do not cellar well beyond about 10 years. The wines also tend to lack color.

I'm not familiar with Des Voigne cellars. I do like the jazz theme that they carry through on their wines. Their website is kind of raggedy and seems like they intend(ed) to finish it at some point.

The bottle is corked with a natural cork. In the glass, this wine has a somewhat dark red color. The wine has scents of prunes, vanilla and oak.

This is a very delicious wine. It has flavors of plum and cherry with hits of oak and vanilla. It has a pepper finish.

Breathable Wine Glasses - Gimmic or Science?

When I was a Jack Cellars yesterday, Jack kindly gave me a sneak preview of the wines (from Walla Walla Vintners - they were quite delicious!) that that he was serving later at his Saturday wine tasting . He served the wine in breathable crystal wine glasses made by Eisch.

According to Eisch's website these glasses eliminate the need for decanting wine. They say that 2-4 minutes in the breathable glass yields the same results as wine that has been aerated and decanted for 1-2 hours. Eish claims that the crystal has been been processed such that oxygen penetrates the glass, but liquid does not. Part of me cries, "BS!" But then I think about Goretex, and concede that just maybe Eisch is on to something.

Since we were only drinking out of the breathable glasses, I do not have any idea whether the glasses made a difference.

Has anybody else tried these glasses? Does anybody think Eisch's claims have any merit?

Wine Shop Review - Jack Cellars

Jack Cellars is the nearest true wine shop to my home. I've lived in my current place for nearly a year, and have driven past Jack Cellars many times and have intended to stop in. Today I finally made a trip to check them out. This is my new favorite wine store!

The owner, Jack Ewer, is very friendly and quickly makes you feel welcome. I am going to a wine party tonight, and told him that I was looking for something interesting to take as my contribution. He suggested Barrister Rough Justice. I only picked up one bottle, so I won't be doing a true review. Given the nature of this particular party, I may not get to sample it myself.

The store has a fairly broad selection of wines. Jack Cellars carries a good representation of both local wines and wines from around the world and in all price ranges. Overall the prices seem to be very reasonable. I noticed that he's charging ~$5 less for Sokol Blosser Evolution than it normally runs at my local grocery stores. Jack is very knowledgeable about the wines he carries and seems very committed to making sure the customer is happy with the wine they select.

Jack has owned the store since December 17, 2007, so he just celebrated his first anniversary. He has a lot of innovative and fun ideas for events at the store. Now that I've finally made it in to Jack Cellars, I expect to become a regular visitor.

Jack Cellars is located at 8016 15th Avenue NE Seattle, WA 98115. As of this writing they are open Tuesday through Saturday, 11:30 - 7:30. I highly recommend you check them out.

Wine Shop Review: Central Market

Tonight I went to Central Market in Shoreline. Now, it's rare that I review a grocer as a wine shop. Few meet up to the standard of carrying an interesting selection of wines at reasonable prices. But Central Market is one of those rare exceptions. They have a wider wine selection than many wine shops, and their prices are very competitive. They carry a wide selection of wines from all regions of the US and the world.

What really sold me on the wine shop at Central Market is that they carry the 2006 Sokol Blosser Dundee Hills Pinot Noir (most stores in Seattle only carry Meditrina and Evolution). They also carry a handful of offerings from Syncline (though they are missing Mourvedre).

I will be utilizing them a lot in my search for decent wines at a decent price. Central Market could keep me reviewing wines for many years!

Lo Duca Lambrusco Reggiano

The Winery: Lo Duca
The Wine: Lambrusco Reggiano
The Price: $11.99 at Casa e Cucina Francesca

I bought this wine on a recent antiquing trip through Snohomish. I wasn't in the market for wine on this particular trip, but having purchased no antiques, and having been warmly greeted and Casa e Cucina Francesca I couldn't resist. The owner was very friendly and had a very good knowledge of Italian wines. I selected two, this one and a white wine that I will be reviewing soon.

This particular wine is fizzy. Apparently fizzy wine is very common in Italy, particularly from the smaller, local wineries. The Italian term for this is frizzante. Not to be confused with "bubbly" wine like Champagne, this wine is fizzy.

There is no vintage listed anywhere on the bottle. I guess one year is as good as the next.

In the glass, this wine looks like a Merlot or Syrah. The wine is deep red, and as it sits in the glass a ring of fine bubbles collects around the glass.

The wine has aromas of berries, cherries and sweet grass.

The wine is sweeter than most reds. It has flavors of sweet cherry and berry jam. The fizz adds a fun touch to the wine.

If you have any taste at all for sweet-ish wines, I highly recommend giving this a try!

Campo Viejo 2001 Gran Reserva Rioja

The Winery: Campo Viejo
The Wine: 2001 Gran Reserva Rioja
The Price: $16.44 at Safeway marked down from $23.49.

Campo Viejo has done a nice job of creating a website that gives a lot of information about their winery. I really appreciate that. They've put a lot of thought into their website. My only real complaint is that it was difficult to find, and it was down when I finally did find it.

If you read my review of Marqués de Cáceres 2001 Reserva Rioja you'll recall that the wines of Spain are named for the region rather than the varietal. The Rioja region is in norther Spain, and wines tend to be stronger and have a higher content of tannins. The Gran Reserva designation signifies the barrel aging time. A wine labeled Crianza will be a younger wine, Reserva will have been aged longer than a Crianza, and a Gran Reserva will have been barrel aged the longest. The Campo Viejo Gran Reserva is aged in oak for 24 months, followed by 36 months of bottle aging.

This wine is deep red in color and has aromas of cherry, prune, blackberry and oak. It has flavors of berry and cherry with a bit of a bite on the finish. This wine is good now, but it could really use another couple of years of aging. I like it enough that I intend on picking up a few more bottles while it's still on sale.

Sokol Bosser 2006 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir

The Winery: Sokol Blosser
The Wine: 2006 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir
The Price: $38 online

The 2006 Pinot Noir is a deep red color. It has a very rich smell, with aromas of cherry, blackberry and raspberry.

As I've come to expect from Sokol Blosser, this is quite a nice Pinot Noir. It has cherry and berry flavors. It is a very well balanced and delicious Pinot Noir. It is very good now, and I think that aging it for a few years will only improve it. The Hugh Johnson Pocket Wine Book calls 2006 a Wine of the Century year for wines of the Pacific Northwest. Sokol Blosser certainly made the most of the harvest.

Deru Wine Decanter

My birthday was last week. My good friends Tom and Katie gave me this very cool wine decanter.

I'm trying to figure out exactly how I'm going to go about reviewing it. I think I'm going to find a wine that I'm familiar with (perhaps a Sokol Blosser Meditrina) and sample both directly from the bottle and decanted.

I really love the shape of the decanter. The shape is really cool and was designed to provide a huge surface area to aerate the wine.

If you're unfamiliar with the use of decanters, there is a a nice little introduction here.

I did decant tonight's wine as the first trial of the decanter. My initial impression is that is easy to use and it looks very classy. The spout is wide enough to allow for easy filling without dripping.

Look for a more in-depth review soon.

Eugene Wine Cellars B-Squared 2005 Pinot Noir

The Winery: Eugene Wine Cellars - B-Squared
The Wine: 2005 Pinot Noir
The Price: $18.99 at Haggen

This is a wine I picked up on a recent trip to Oregon. I bought it mostly because of the name. Because of my initials, my sister used to call me B-squared. So I had to buy the wine.

The wine has a natural cork stopper, always a plus for me.

The wine is a deep ruby color and has aromas of cherry and blackberry with a hint of oak.

The wine has predominantly cherry and berry flavors. The initial taste is good, but the wine unfortunately has a bitter finish. It's not a terrible wine, but the finish definitely detracts from the experience.