Month: December 2010

Could it be?? The Perfect Sparkling Gift?

/ thewinesnob / 1 Comment

The answer, of course, is YES!  It’s perfect.  The Mumm Brut Prestige (NV, Napa Valley) really had me at “Hello.”  The bottle looks sophisticated and well designed- Good Gift Reason #1.  It tastes delicious- Good Gift Reason #2.  It’s #48 on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of 2010- Good Gift Reason #3.  Soooo… I’m thinking that’s all you really need to know.  No?  Well, okay, I’ll tell you a little bit more about it, but only because I like you.

Aight, so the Brut Prestige is an assemblage of primarily Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.   In true Napa-sparkling style, it strikes a near-perfect balance of gorgeous, warm, sunny fruit characteristics and a lively, refreshing, quenching acidity.  The website states that it is aged in *mostly* stainless steel- there are hints of yeasty spice and vanilla, which suggest a small amount of oak- but whatever the amount, doggone it if it ain’t just right!  The rest of the nose is pear, apple, fresh white flowers, apricot and melon.  What I love BEST about it (besides the fact that it’s reasonably priced) is the mouthfeel- it has that delicate “lift” that a sparkling wine can have- it feels sort of like an air-bubble in your mouth for a second, and the mousse is very fine, but not so fine that you can’t find the bubbles.  Cuz you want to know where da bubbles at when you’re drinking sparkling wine!

Here it is on our Top 100 Shelf at Cellar on Greene, flaunting it’s cool little 90-point rating.  Sooo… let’s see if we can find a celebrity to liken this wine to… Awwww man- I’m bringing out the big guns for this one! 

So this wine is classy, elegant, and most importatly- has never, and probably will never, go out of style.  Even if you’re not in the mood for wine drinking, it’s still bound to brighten your day.  Sometimes you probably forget how good it is, until you pop a bottle one Tuesday for no reason and are reminded- WOW- it’s been this good all along and has never faltered not even for a second!  Can you guess it?? 

sweet jesus that’s a good looking man

BRAD PITT!!  Yes, that’s right folks.  Did you forget about Brad Pitt?  You might have, since he’s so busy with the kids nowadays, and he has the beard sometimes which is a little distracting.  And he’s basically started a second career as a philanthropist and spends a lot of time on that.  But… do you remember Thelma & Louise?  I DO!!  I love him in that movie.  That might be my favorite cute boy movie of all time.  And by that I mean, you watch it just to see the scene with the hairdryer one.more.time.  So in a nutshell, the Mumm and Brad are one because they are timeless and perfect for any occasion. 

So, the last thing I need to mention is that the Mumm can be had for the cool price of 20 bucks!  Good Gift Reason #4- twenty bucks is the ideal amount of money to spend on a gift, in my humble opinion.  Stop in to Cellar and mention this post when you purchase the Mumm and I will also give you a pretty sparkly wine bag to put it in, thus negating the need for you to wrap it!  So that should wrap things up for this edition.  All in all it’s been a good writing experience, given that I got to stop halfway through and Google pictures of Brad Pitt.  Just what I needed tonight, and hopefully it was what you needed, too!

Chateau blahblahblah, 2007 Bordeaux Superieur

/ thewinesnob / 2 Comments

I am just kidding.  I take wine VERY seriously, and I would absolutely NEVER make such a slight against this lovely bottle of French wine.  It’s proper name is Chateau Haut-La Pereyre, 2007 Bordeaux Superieur. 

Okay, true confession… I just spent a good five minutes Googling how to properly pronounce the name of this winery, but get this- they have no website (that I can find) and basically I have such a short attention span and get so intensely irritated when something cannot be Googled and resolved within five minutes, that I have elected to stop searching.  French has always been difficult for me- maybe it’s because I studied Spanish and my brain automatically wants to apply Spanish rules to French, which ultimately leads to disaster and embarressment.  Spanish makes sense to me- French does not.  Whenever I try to say something properly, I always feel like I’m saying it wrong and people will laugh at me.  So here’s my best guess- I know “Haut” is “oat,” and “Pereyre” is maybe something like “Pear-yay.”   There you go.  Now I feel stupid. 

French wine makes sense, though- which leads me back to my original point- we’re going to call this one Chateau blahblahblah for now, so that we can discuss how utterly fantastic this wine is, and not have to worry about how to pronounce it!  Okay??  Okay. 

Alright, let’s get started, shall we?!  This wine is ABSURDLY good!  You may remember from one of my last posts about French wines, when I was obsessing about the Domaine Lalaurie Marselan- that when I find a French wine that I like, I do tend to- well, like I just said- obsess.  Truly, it doesn’t happen that often, as most French wines I’ve been blown away by have also been very expensive and being paid for by someone other than me.  And in order for me to get into full-on obsession mode, it HAS to be reasonably priced.  Because how exciting can a wine be if you can’t afford to drink it??  Exactly.

Moving on.  So many beautiful aromatics on this wine’s nose!  Vanilla, cloves, cinnamon and black fruits are very densely accummulated in the glass.  The palate gives you a very distinct punch of graphite, minerality, thyme, and meatiness.  Everything is so seamlessly interwoven and nicely concentrated.  It’s only 13% alcohol, which means it’s a perfect wine to sip on for the duration of the evening.  Ever try to drink Zinfandel all night?  not pretty.  Trust me.  This wine, you can really invite in for the night.  Sit down on the couch with it, in front of the fire.  Now I’m really starting to sound like a single person, I suppose.  It would be tragic if this wine really wasn’t a better companion than most of the single male population of the Columbia area.  (I kid, I kid). 

a cute graphic of where exactly this wine comes from! if you care.

You know what?  that’s really all I have to say about this.  Oh, AND you can buy it at the Wine Sale at Cellar on Greene TOMORROW, 12/4 for $18!!   Yeah, that part is pretty cool.