Qupé Marsanne, 2013 Santa Barbara

September 12, 2015 / thewinesnob / Leave a comment

It’s ANOTHER “Summer’s Swan Song” post on this balmy Friday! We had a bit of an Indian Summer here in Oregon and it was actually really lovely. Well, maybe not so lovely for the fruit-pickers that are currently working their @ss’s off all over the Valley, but for me? Divine. It made me want to eat all the Summer produce one last time. Tomatoes, watermelon, squash- all of it! So I’m somewhat glad I saved this bottle of Marsanne from Qupé until now. It’s perfect for a Summer Friday afternoon.

Kyoo-PAY. It means “poppy”.

Founder and winemaker Bob Lindquist is an original “Rhone Ranger”; he started Qupé in 1982 making Syrah, Chardonnay and dry Rosé in California’s Central Coast. He subsequently teamed up with Au Bon Climat’s Jim Clenenden and the two built a shared facility in 1989. The rest is, as they say, history. Both Au Bon Climat and Qupé have great reputations, and I’m currently being reminded of how badly I need to get to this part of California. I’ll go ahead and add it to my list… which is pretty long. Le sigh.

This wine is made from 75% Marsanne and 25% Roussanne. These two French varieties are bros from way back. Most commonly found in the Northern Rhone, they play off each other beautifully; Marsanne produces wines of great color and depth and are intensely perfumed. Roussanne is a bit stingier, more of a bastard to grow, and usually packs a solid punch of acid, making them great agers. Both these fellas enjoy the Coastal California vibe, basking in the afternoon ocean breezes and morning fog, which helps them maintain their acidity.

Both grapes for this wine are whole cluster pressed. The Marsanne, which comes from roughly 28-year old vines on the Ibarra-Young Vineyard, is chilled in tank for 48 hours before it goes to neutral French oak barrels. The Roussane, interestingly, heads straight to barrel with the lees after an evening chilling. (Literally). Bob prefers the use of once filled Francois Freres barrels previously used for Chardonnay with the Roussanne. I love these little facts. The Roussanne comes from the Bien Nacido Vineyard, one of the oldest in the area for all grapes Rhone.

Now! We gotta talk about what this wine tastes like before I get too much wordier. Its a dark golden strawish color and the nose is a nice combination of slightly tropical with ripe stone fruit. Nectarine, apricot, a touch of pineapple. Once it warms up a bit, you can detect its oak content a bit- hints of baking spice and creamy lemon. You might think it was a flab-fest, but the finish really clenches with pleasant acid and even a drying sensation which leads me to think this wine will age nicely. There’s something that reminds me of menthol lingering in there as well. The texture is viscous and slightly oily, but in a luscious way. Oily is a strange word to use to describe wine, and its connotation would seem negative, but its not intended as such. Its one of those descriptors that makes perfect sense once you identify it.

This is the first California wine I’ve written about in Lord only knows how long! Its been fun. I sometimes forget California exists. Not really. But almost. Hope you enjoyed this little trip to Cali and are as ready for Fall as the rest of America seems to be.

This wine was received as a sample. Its suggested retail cost is $20.

A little Fun with the French!

October 16, 2012 / thewinesnob / 1 Comment

This Tuesday morning has me feeling a bit on the French side. Why?

who’s that in the background? Penelope Garcia!

Well, really because two of my favorite wines of recent have been French. Actually, there’s a third that I’ll throw in at the end; also French. So three altogether. But the first two are especially crucial because I absolutely LOVE Frenchies that exhibit tremendous value! There are still plenty of those in the world, so let’s get started with these guys…

Oooh, lookie here! A view inside my fridge:

a stunning view! really, I didn’t pre-arrange this. This is it.

Alright, so my fridge isn’t always the prettiest sight, but right now it’s not too bad. Sadly, that bottle of Rose is way past it’s prime, but it remains in the fridge until the next time I am inspired to edit some items out. Psssshhhtt. Whatev.

So this wine is the Kimmeridgien Chardonnay, 2010 from Jean Marc Brocard. It sells for $16, which is a solid deal for a fantastic white Burgundy. I’ve actually loved this wine for several vintages past, and whenever it’s made it’s way to our retail shelves in the past few years, it’s always sold very well and has been much loved. It’s truly a perfect expression of this soil type! “Kimmeridgian” actually is a soil type; or rather a basin of Limestone that runs all the way through Champagne, the Loire, and Burgundy. Now, I didn’t do so well in Geology class, and really I have only a slightly better than average knowledge of soil types. But based on the best of my understanding, this particular soil makes particularly good wine (Chardonnay, especially) because it is a Limestone-based soil that is nice n’ chalky. Not to be a total nerd, but it’s actually pretty cool that this soil type and this wine are named for an actual Geological …. um… thing. That’s about all I can say about that. Except one more thing- I had a reaalllly hot Geology TA in college named Luke. Fin.

So, this wine is good. Here’s why: it has a gorgeous golden straw color and a very distinctive Chablis nose of citrus peel, chalk, a hint of gunflint, soap, and fresh tart green apples. Stainless steel fermentation makes it’s palate very lean and taut, with razor-like focus and searing acidity. The finish lingers for at least a minute, and shows off a slight touch of hazelnut and a little something floral. A truly beautiful wine that drinks effortlessly, and might make you think twice about what Chardonnay is capable of.

Next freakout of the week: St. Cosme Cotes du Rhone, 2011!

THE JAM.

Recently given 90 points by Wine Spectator, this guy is set on world-domination! That is how FREAKING good this wine is. And, I’m going to go ahead and call that this wine WILL definitely be on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of 2012. Why?? Well, like I said, it’s freaking delicious, it got 90 Points (a requirement to be on said list) and it sells for a ridiculous $15!! Which is stone. cold. RIDIC.

It seems this wine is mostly Syrah, but despite a bit of hunting, I can’t be sure. To me it doesn’t really matter. Some past vintages of this bottling have been 100% Syrah, and some have had Grenache. This wine literally explodes! An extremely vibrant nose of violets, raw meat (if you’ve never smelled that, it actually smells delicious rather than gross), blackberries, licorice, sandalwood, plums, anise, black pepper… I could really keep going, but hopefully you get the gist. The palate is quenchy, silky, perfectly balanced and juicy. This is the absolute epitome of an everyday red wine, in my book. I know I could drink it every day. Actually, I think I have had it every day since last Wednesday.

The other cool thing is that Chateau de St. Cosme is currently getting an absolute slew of amazing ratings (think high 90’s), and it’s totally awesome that they have an entry-level red that is this great of a price. I’d still love this wine even if it didn’t have high-rollin’ big sisters, but it’s still a good selling point.

Alright, one more cool French wine that coincidentally started to blow up in my twitter feed right after we got it in- Shatter Grenache, 2010 Maury, France. Made by rock star winemakers Joel Gott and Dave Phinney, this wine is a cacophony of wild n’ crazy fruits, spices, and oakyness. I’d go into much more detail, but my wine-blogging doppelganger The Reverse Wine Snob has written an awesome post on it here, which I can’t really improve on. We’re currently retailing it for $29, and if you like the sounds of it, come grab one! That’s all for today.

Feraud-Brunel Cotes du Rhone Villages, 2007

July 19, 2010 / thewinesnob / 4 Comments

I LOVE Cotes du Rhone! LOVELOVELOVE. Most especially when they come in at a whopping $18 a bottle!! And are rated 91 points like this one from Feraud-Brunel! And it’s a 2007, which all the wine nerds out there know was a great year in the Rhone, and as such, it can be pricey to acquire a higher-end Chateauneuf du Pape and the like. Not as pricey as these 2009 Bordeaux futures are looking (scroll through this for an example, but get ready to have a tear in your eye)… aaaand that’s enough wine-nerding for today.

Moving on to wine we can actually afford in this lifetime- this Feraud-Brunel Villages is a truly exceptional wine. Robert Parker gave it 90 points, and Wine Spectator gave it 91. It has the wild, exotic characteristic that French Rhone wines can so often have (it is a blend of 70% Grenache, and 30% Syrah). Brambly, with an up-front taste of raspberries and blackberries, hints of vanilla, cloves and figs, a pleasant amount of wood (that’s what she said- boo-ya!- that was for you, Florence Wine Guy), dark chocolate, graphite and licorice. Absolutely awesome.

Here it sits, amidst my Monday list of things to do- which is remarkably short today- a good thing, I suppose, since I am sipping wine in the middle of the day:

If you can see that far, notice that “Saturdays” appears on my to-do list. Why? because we have had several abnormally quiet Saturdays in a row here at Cellar on Greene. Busy all week, then Saturday just falls on it’s face. I know there’s lots to do in Columbia, but do any of my faithful readers care to venture a guess about why Saturdays seem to be our slowest nights? Or any suggestions on what you would like to see us offer that’s exciting and different on a Saturday? Anyway, back to the wine… here is an up-close of the label so you know what you’re looking for:

Now let’s think about food pairings, just because I love food. Would you just look at what popped up during my google search for this wine?! One word: SAUSAGE! Oh yes. This wine would be perrrfect with some grilled sausages like THESE:

I could probably do without the black-eyed peas that these are sitting in, but thanks for the picture anyway, Epicurious! I like black-eyed peas, but if a bean isn’t the toughest thing to pair with wine, I don’t know what is. Maybe Indian food? But the sausage sure looks delicious, doesn’t it?! Lamb sausage would be exceptionally good, given the classic pairing of Syrah and Lamb. This wine has such a nice spicy, smokiness to it, it would really be perfect with anything off the grill in the Summer- or if you can wait that long- something slow-roasted or braised with wine and herbs in the Winter.

I’m trying to get back into my Celebrity comparisons that I used to do with the wines, and this one might be a bit of a stretch, but I just can’t help myself. Since this wine is sleek and somewhat intellectual in it’s packaging, and yet also sort of a “bad boy” given it’s wild, spicy, gamey and untamed character, I’m gonna go ahead and say this wine is Robert Downy, Jr. What? No, I most certainly DO NOT have a long-standing love affair with him, and I HAVEN’T been just itching to compare a wine to him just so I could search for the absolute best pictures I could find! Why on Earth would you think that?! Well, since I must illustrate with photos, here we go:

First, here he is looking sleek and intellectual and polished:

Next, much like the wine, he reveals more of his brooding demeanor, with a hint of muscle:

And then- WHOA! he takes his shirt off for an unexpected fight scene in Sherlock Holmes and catches you totally off guard! Much to your surprise, he reveals himself as a total badass while still being smart and polished! How in the WORLD did he do that?!

I can’t even get into any Iron Man comparisons… we’d be here all day and Ricky would begin to question whether I did any work today whatsoever. So just buy the wine, show your love for RDJR, for the love of God. Happy drinking!