EAST COAST PALATE

The first snow of the season fell on Saturday and I was in D.C. pouring wine at a YES Organic Market, where the wine and dairy sections share an aisle.  Needless to say, I was cold on that frigid day, and when my sampling duties were done, I went down a block to Busboys & Poets.  This was my first time here, but I'm planning on heading back this weekend.  The ambiance and noise and warmth were just what I needed.  It seems like a good place for a first date, but I could tell a lot of people were there for the food and drinks.  I, however, sat at the bar, opened a book, and thawed out.   A glass of Côtes du Rhone turned out to be the perfect wine for my brief visit.

The 2006 Côtes du Rhône by Jean-Luc Colombo is a blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre that has some dark cherry aromas mixed with a spicy, woodsy smell.  The alcohol adds its own spiciness to the nose, but the wine's structure is solid.  There is a good deal of acidity to balance out the tannins.  The dark berry flavors come through, but at the same time this wine isn't overly fruity.  The finish is lengthy and on the tart side, which I like.  This wine would be able to stand up to some duck confit or a hearty steak, but it's made well enough that it does fine on it's own.  A glass at Busboys & Poets costs $8, so I'd guess this wine runs about $13-$15 retail.  I'll be looking for it for my own wine cellar.

This is not a typical choice for a Monday night wine.  But I asked my sister to go select something from the growing stack of brown bag covered bottles by my desk.  She broght me a few ounce pour so I could practice some sensory analysis with this wine (This kind of olfactory exercise can be a lot of fun and will provide a more objective critique of any food or beverage.  If somebody, myself included, sees a wine label that says Châteauneuf-du-Pape, we're predisposed to think highly of this wine).
The color: beautiful ruby red that is clear...nearly translucent.
The aromas are very subtle.  This wine has that old-world dusty smell that allowed me to guess where it was from, but overall it is what many would call tight, meaning its smells and flavors are masked by its youth.  None-the-less I get a little bit of strawberry (my sister said red Jello) and a gravely minerality.  The alcohol (14%) really comes through on the nose here, only adding to the difficulty of picking up other aromas.
The wine has a solid body: decent acid, good tannins, and overall balance that transitions to a finish where the berry flavors are even more pronounced.  There just isn't a lot of depth to this product yet.
In my opinion, this bottle needs 2-3 more years before being opened.  I'm saving half the bottle to see how the flavors and smells open up over night.  If I had to give this wine a score right now, I'd have to stay around the 87-88 point range.  That's a let down when taken into account the bottle sells for $45.  For that much money I expect nothing less than an A effort.  But again, this wine hasn't seen its prime yet.
Lesson learned: wine is fun!!  I know that the 2007 vintage from Châteauneuf-du-Pape is being hyped up as one of the best in a long time.  Unfortunately I haven't tried that many of the CDPs yet.  This Domaine Lafond shows potential, but for the time being I'd have to take my money elsewhere. 
Who has tasted some of the 2007 Châteauneuf-du-Papes and could recommend a wine to me?  I'm working on writing my Christmas list...

My eventful Saturday began yesterday at down at Circle Wine & Liquors (www.circlewinelist.com), where I poured three well-priced Aussi wines.  The Rosemount 2008 Chardonnay, 2007 Shiraz, and 2007 Shiraz/Grenache are all on sale there for $9.  The Chardonnay for me was a bit green smelling.  Nice notes of crisp green apple... Not so nice aromas of peas or green beans.  It was an okay, non-oaky Chardonnay that scores a low B for my taste, but would probably be a good choice for someone to try if they like lighter Pinot Grigio style Chardonnay.
The Shiraz is a fruit-bomb aromatically, with a whiff of candylike sweetness mingling with nice cherry and plum action.  Once I tasted it, though, I percieved a slightly plastic taste, as if somebody dropped a Lego block in my glass when I wasn't looking.  A bit off, but still a typical spicy, plummy Shiraz from down under.  Another low B.
The Shiraz/Grenache was the favorite of the day...for me and most of the store's clientele that stopped by for a few sips.  This wine had the fruity qualities mixed with a cocoa subtlety that pops in on the mid-palate.  For me this is the bottle I would buy; a solid B and a very versitile vino for holiday pairings.

$7.50 is an amazing price to pay for the quality wine that you get from this bottle.  This blend comes from the southeast of Spain, in a region called Almansa, where in 2005 the heat was strong and the grapes ripened extremely well.  This wine consists of about 2/3 Garnacha and 1/3 Syrah.  There are some resinous dark cherry and leather components coming from the Grenache in it, while the Syrah adds some ripe plum and a peppery kick to the final product.  You can tell the wine spent some time in oak barrels, but those tannins are very well integrated with the fruit and acid it the wine, bringing a toasty cedar note into the mix.  The acidity here will put a pucker on your face, like a big swig of cran-grapefruit juice would, if you can imagine the sensation.  Early on I detected a bit of that nail-polish-remover, chemical odor (ethyl acetate) that can really screw up a wine.  But if it was a bit flawed, it wasn't to a strong enough extent to mask the great aromas, flavors, and overall balance of this red blend.  In any case, I'll be buying more of this wine, so I'll be able to compare the bottles I open in the future with the first one.  Overall I'll give this wine a solid B rating at 88 points.  I love that it matches or surpasses many of the wines in the $20-$30 range.  It is a drink-now kind of wine that bring with it many old world characteristics, and I recommend it to everyone.
I have to say thank you to Nick Henning for pointing this wine out to me at YES Organic Market in D.C.  Otherwise it could've passed under my wine radar and I would've never known what I do now.  Currently it is the wine of the month at YES, so there will be plenty in stock throughout the holiday season.  I am pumped up to know about this wine.  Tell your friends.  Share this wine at parties.  It's only 7 bucks and worth every sip.

A well-made Southern Rhone style red wine from Chateau Ste. Michelle.  This is the best wine I have ever tasted from them.

This bottle, Chateau Ste. Michelle's Orphelin blend threw me for a loop.  I had my sister pick a bottle out of my growing collection and pour me a glass.  Immediately when I lifted the wine toward my nose, I thought Malbec, and that dark plummy color and the prune and chocolate-covered cherries aromas had me thinking maybe Merlot, maybe Malbec.  The flavors were fruit driven with some spicy undertones.  I really liked the way the wine was in my mouth until a strange, bitter and metallic aftertaste crept in.  I was intrigued with this wine, and into my third glass, the interest is only growing.  I rate it a B+, but it pairs very nicely with Eva Cassidy's Live from Blues Alley album, which almost bumps it up to an A- wine. 
The blend on this Rhone style blend consists of a bunch of different grape varietals: Syrah, Cinsault, Grenache, Mourvedre, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pedit Verdot, Touriga, and Viognier.  It doesn't drink like a Cotes de Rhone or Chateauneuf de Pape, but it is a wine worth trying priced around $15.