2010 Gascon Malbec, Argentina

Color – Purple with a violet rim

Nose – Blueberry, strawberry, cherry

Taste – I had the chance to spend an evening out with my wife and mutual friends at The Living Room Wine Café and Lounge. First off this is not to be confused with a wine bar, the difference between them being this was closer to a club/bar than a lounge/wine sipping spot. Regardless the wine list was lengthy though not overly pretentious however they were out of the wine I was interested in trying. They offered me this wine instead at a 12 dollar discount (I shudder to think I could have purchased this bottle for that amount at my local supermarket, instead I paid 20 dollars for this bottle). This wine is young and very fruit forward. There isn’t a lot going on as far as flavor is concerned; sugary blackberry, strawberry and cherry dominate the attack with just a little plum and raisin hints as well. The mid-palate is lacking any noticeable astringency, but does carry limited alcohol and biting tannins. The finish is medium in length with sour cherry, leather and some of that cough syrup flavor I detest in wine (though it’s just a hint of the cough syrup flavor). This wine is medium bodied though it wants to be a full bodied wine. The aftertaste is pleasing enough with flavors of stone fruit and molasses.

Overall, this wine is young, fruit forward and not worth 10 dollars much less 20. It’s a pleasing enough though completely un-complex red wine. It tastes almost like sugared fruit juice. If you don’t like particularly bold red wines or are used to sweet wines this one’s for you. Otherwise I advise passing on this one; it has a poor QPR and for the same price you can get a pretty darn good Malbec if you pick up the Kaiken.

Gascon Wines

2009 Durigutti Malbec, Argentina

In livid color…Very dark purple, black at the core

Remini-scent of…Black currant, raisin, alcohol

Taste the situation…I must admit to being curious about this wine every time I walk through the Costco wine section or look at the Malbecs that are sold at Total Wine & More. The bottle is elegant and simple with cursive script in white on a black label with orange foil topping the cork. It’s because of this elegance and simplicity that I was so interested in this wine, that and the price. I finally gave in on a recent trip to Costco and purchased this bottle. Not having any preconceptions I popped the cork, poured a small glass, swirled, sniffed and sipped. Definitely decant this wine, preferably for an extended period (mine was still too tight, alcohol-y and tannic even after a few hours, that faded by the next day). Keep in mind this is a young wine and according to the winemakers does not go through a lot of the processes other wines go through as they are fermented. Take that with a grain of salt, however it’s possible that those processes take off some of the “edge“ of most red wines. This one still had some rough patches, but I was able to get through the bottle without my palate being overwhelmed by this wine’s failings. First off this is a pretty big wine, tasting heavily of fruit but equally of sharp, savory and sour flavors. The attack starts off smooth enough with raspberry, cherry and blackberry flavors, backed with a streak of leather and smoke. Those last two carry on through the mid-palate where astringency jumps right in and dries my tongue and cheeks mightily. This is followed by powerful alcohol heat and flavor, almost overbearing in its intensity; the only reason it doesn’t kill this wine is that it fades VERY fast. A medium-long finish meanders in lazily and brings with it a lot more dark, sour flavors and leaves off most of the fruit. There is leather, smoke, tar, licorice, espresso beans and just a hint of plum and blackberry. The sharp flavors are backed by another surge of alcohol heat that you can feel if you exhale through your nose just as you swallow. This is a full bodied wine with an aftertaste of leather and burnt sugared plums.

Overall, I went back and forth by the end of each glass I drank trying to decide if this was a drinker or a dud. It has its failings, but you can tell the winemakers are trying to relay something with this wine. There are hints of complexity; they just don’t work right. The overwhelming alcohol presence is what finally tipped the scales and made my mind up for me. This gets a poor QPR mostly by taste alone. The quality in and of itself is definitely there in the weight and complexity of the wine, but the flavors don’t blend in this wine at all. It’s a pretty messy, hot wine; not something I would recommend. I do plan to set a bottle of this aside in my cellar and come back to it in the next 5-10 years because I do think there is something here. I just believe this needs more time in the bottle to mellow and gain some much needed age. Take a pass on this if you are looking for a Malbec with dinner grab the Kaiken or Alamos; those two won’t let you down.

Durigutti

2008 Kirkland Signature Napa Valley Meritage, California

Shades of simplicity…Dark red nearly black at the core

Pleasantly perfumed…Black currant, plum, vanilla, alcohol

Brute-force flavors…This intrigued me as I passed through the wine section at Costco last week. Another Kirkland Signature Meritage, this one 4 dollars less expensive than the Rutherford Valley Meritage I enjoy so much. Could this possibly have an equal QPR? Let’s find out. This is darker than I remember the Rutherford Valley Meritage being, and the proportions of the varietals is different as are the vineyards the wine comes from. The aromas present here are pleasant enough though the underlying smell of alcohol is a little off-putting. The attack is warm and spicy featuring a decent amount of oak, blueberry and plum; this is a heavily oaked wine or it just tastes like it was heavily oaked as the flavor of oak/wood is present from start to finish. The mid-palate has young, playful tannins and a lot of heat and tingle from the alcohol but there is also a decent level of sweet blueberry and plum fruit that would overpower this wine if the alcohol and tannins didn’t rein this in. The long finish carries forward the plums and blueberries, adds some black cherry and blackberry to the mix and tops it all with oak, pepper, chocolate and leather. This is a heavy bodied red that fares better at room temperature and benefits from pairing with a fatty, charred piece of meat. The aftertaste is immensely pleasant and full of plums and vanilla.

Overall, this wine doesn’t reach the same level of quality or complexity as the Rutherford Valley Meritage. Granted this wine is not as expensive as that wine, but this is a less pleasing glass of wine. I give this a good QPR if you can handle a rather oaky red wine that also shows a decent amount of alcohol flavors throughout the wine itself. In all honesty this wine will probably taste better in 5 years or so. It’s a little young right now and that shows; it needs the chance to mellow and gain some age. I can’t recommend this over the Rutherford Valley Meritage and to be honest you can find better bottles at the same price point (Kirkland Signature Carneros Pinot Noir is the first that comes to mind) but I will recommend it as far as price point goes. For me I will spend the 4 extra dollars and pick up the Rutherford or purchase this to add to my cellared wines.

2006 Yangarra Cadenzia (68% Grenache, 27% Shiraz, 5% Mourvedre), Australia

Colored with three Crayola crayons…Ruby red fading evenly to garnet with flecks of black in the core

A lovely bouquet of…Black cherry, blackberry, plum, sugar

My tongue tells me…I don’t usually purchase Rhone Blends or any wine that features Grenache or Mourvedre. The reason being; I think they taste sweet. Yes I am using the term sweet, not fruit forward or “fruit bomb”; I think GSM’s taste sweet and cloying. This was recommended as I was purchasing the Wirra Wirra Catapult Shiraz/Voignier; now I know why. That particular Shiraz is “sweeter” than I would have liked, and this is a wine along the same lines. All of this begs the answer, is it a good wine and worth the buy? Setting aside my dislike for sweeter red wines, I will attempt to review this wine. It is a very smooth wine from start to finish, which is the only thing I like about sweeter red wines they tend to remove the tannins that might make the wine less palatable. This wine is the definition of a smooth, sweeter, dark red wine. The attack is all sugared dark berries and stone fruit; black cherry, blackberry, plum, raisin and grape. These flavors taste good even to me as they take on a slightly caramel/molasses flavor and blend into a very warm mid-palate. The mid-palate is nicely warm from the alcohol, not overly acidic and marginally astringent; creating a pleasant but minor segue from attack to finish. The finish is long in length and personified by more black cherry, blackberry and plum flavors, but now they are brought down to earth and tempered by some alcohol heat and flavors of crème brulee, vanilla and leather. This is a medium bodied wine, just edging into full bodied territory with an aftertaste of fresh plums mixed with wet leather.

Overall, this was originally priced at 20 dollars; yikes! But it was on sale for 10 dollars the day I purchased it. Is it worth 20 dollars? I don’t really know as I don’t have anything to judge this against. Is it worth 10 dollars? Very much so! I would say at 10 dollars this is nearly a great QPR, and a wine to purchase by the half case at least. Yes even though this is a rather sweet wine, it is very smooth and balanced, and moves nicely into an extremely pleasing finish that had me going back to the bottle for more as my glass emptied. I can’t review this wine against other GSM’s, but judging this wine on its own I would say this is a very nice wine; perhaps not worth 20 dollars but definitely worth more than 10.

Yangarra Estate Vineyard

2009 BrisAndes Cabernet Sauvignon, Chile

Color – Dark red with a violet-tinged rim

Nose – Strawberry, red currant, slight green bell pepper

Taste – I purchased this while spending some quality time amongst the bottles at Total Wine for under 10 dollars. I wasn’t expecting much from this wine, I just wanted to judge it against other Domaine de Rothschild wines from South America. This one is slightly better than the Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon (not reviewed due to the loss of my tasting notes, sorry.) It has a simple nose of red berries and minimal herbaceous notes. The attack is a little darker, featuring dark cherry, strawberry and green bell peppers with behind the scenes tastes of pepper and oak. The mid-palate is nearly invisible with barely any recognizable alcohol or tannins and light astringency. The finish is medium-long and borders on the unpleasant as the berry flavors turn sour and what can only be described as “dark”. I can taste sour cherries, bittersweet chocolate, burnt molasses and leather. The aftertaste teeters on the edge of overbearing and pungent, but never really falls over. All of that having been said when tasting this wine by itself, the flavors don’t change too much when paired. I did, however, notice nice changes when I paired this with a grilled top sirloin. The rare cut of beef complimented the wine, or vice versa, very well, mellowing the sour flavors and adding a “buttery” characteristic to the finish. It wasn’t good enough to change my opinion of this wine, but it made the wine drinkable.

Overall, I would rate this a poor QPR. It tastes better than the flat and bland Los Vascos, but the flavors here don’t taste good. The overall feeling I got from this wine was that it was too young and pungent, with flavors that made me cringe especially during the finish. I wanted to like this, but even upon revisiting this wine after four days in my wine cellar it was just as unpleasant on day one. I highly advise passing on this wine; you can probably chose another wine while blindfolded and get a better wine than this.

2007 Wirra Wirra Catapult Shiraz/Viognier (95% Shiraz/5% Viognier), Australia

A Sight for Sore Eyes…Intense black core fading to deep red and finally garnet at the rim

Nose-tradamus Predicts…Blueberry, blackberry, raisin, plum, crushed peppercorns

Tasting a Rainbow of…The Wirra Wirra Catapult has been in the back of my mind for about two months now since I picked up the 2007 Waterbrook Syrah Reserve from Cost Plus World Market when their beverage specialist recommended both of the wines to me. I put off on the Wirra Wirra due to my lack of familiarity with Viognier and my skepticism on red wines blended with white wines. But when I stopped by recently and saw this reduced to 15 dollars (a 5 dollar price cut) I just had to pick up a bottle. I sipped this directly after opening and found it to be just a little on the fruit forward side for me and I immediately got worried that I wouldn’t be able to make it through the bottle (to my palate this is a very fruit-y, re: sweet, red wine). I let this sit for a good 20 minutes before returning and testing the waters. The wine was still fruit-y, though it tastes better now that it has had a chance to breathe and reach room temperature. I can taste dark plum, raisin and brown sugar flavors predominantly with hints of charcoal/ash and tobacco right as the mid-palate takes over. The mid-palate holds a decent amount of heat and some interesting tannins that nearly change the charcoal/ash flavors from complex and intriguing into pungent and unpleasant. Luckily these flavors fade rather quickly as the medium finish takes over. The finish is personified by more savory and robust flavors; tobacco, leather, black pepper and smoke. There are some light tinges of plum/raisin and blackberry in the aftertaste, but mainly it tastes like burnt sugar and tobacco. This is a medium-edging-into-full bodied wine with complexity in the attack and finish, and a mid-palate that is a little too rowdy for my tastes.

Overall, I would say 15 dollars is an ok price point for this wine, it is definitely a quality wine. Does it have its flaws? Sure, it’s rough and nearly unpleasant in the mid-palate, but the attack and finish are deep, warm and complex with flavors and textures that definitely had my attention. It is a little “sweet” for my tastes, I like my Shiraz/Syrah to feature fruit but this has just a little too much fruit and sugar for me, especially in the attack. All that aside, I would rate this a Fair to Good QPR at 15 dollars; it’s normally priced at 20 dollars and at that price I think I’d drop my rating a notch and call this an even QPR wine. But if you can find it on sale below 15 bucks, I think you will get yourself a good deal on a fairly complex offering. Will I be Catapult-ing again any time soon? Probably not, but I will think hard about cellaring a bottle of this because I do believe it will hold up well for 5-10 years and age into a very smooth, complex red wine.

Wirra Wirra Vineyards

2009 Mauro Sebaste Nebbiolo d’Alba Parigi, Italy

Beauteous to Behold…Elegant ruby red lightening slightly at the rim to garnet

Heavens Scent…Tobacco, cherry, herbs, grass and lettuce (smells the way endive tastes)

Palatable Perfection…As a short disclaimer I must be quite honest and admit that Nebbiolo, and Italian wines in general, don’t normally make my list for reviews. I am not that familiar with Italian reds aside from a few inexpensive Chiantis and Trentatre Rosso; nor have I enjoyed most of the Italian wines that I have tried. They tend to run sharp and acidic, tasting of sweet-sour cherries and raspberries and they tend to fall more in the light or medium bodied category. So I have shied away from reds from Italy until my most recent trip to Total Wine & More. This particular afternoon (a Friday) they were sampling three different Italian reds of varying prices and qualities. I enjoyed the first but it left my mouth puckering a little too much, the second was palatable enough but not something I would drink often but the third wine (a Barbaresco) was immaculate but outside my price range. At the advice of the wine expert that was taking me on my journey through Italian reds I purchased this particular Nebbiolo and I am exceedingly happy that I listened to him. First off this wine looks a little light in the glass but the color is very even throughout the glass and makes me immediately assume this wine has depth and quality. The aromas coming from the wine are very tight and focused (as an aside you really need to decant this wine for a minimum of 3 to 5 hours if not overnight otherwise it tends to be very tight, acidic and tannic) bringing to mind the tar and musky-ness of tobacco layered with cherry/raspberry hints and a very strong line of sharp grass or lettuce that runs throughout the background of the bouquet. The attack on this wine can be summed up in this short description: a focused red wine that shows its quality and complexity through the perfect silky-smooth layers of flavors and textures that complement each other while never detracting from the intensity of this wine. In all honesty I don’t think I have ever tasted a wine that immediately and thoroughly proves its quality, depth and complexity like this wine does. The attack is supremely focused fruit and spices; cherries and prunes covering chocolate and pepper layered on top of tar and leather, all of them making me wish the flavors would never end. But soon enough they melt into an extremely pleasant mid-palate of smooth, round tannins; pitch perfect astringency and just enough acidity to cut through some of the more fruity characteristics of this wine. The mid-palate fizzles and fades right as the medium-long finish takes hold of my palate, and what a finish it is. The sweet-sour cherry/raspberry flavors come on first mixed with black tea leaves and leather and finally some raisin/plum flavors with hints of vanilla and flowers. The aftertaste is quite pleasant almost refreshing with the plum and flowers sticking around for the duration. This a medium bodied wine that is best served right at room temperature and with a nice big hearty meal or some simple but nicely spiced red sauce pasta dish.

Overall, I went back and forth coming up with a rating for this wine. So here’s my reasoning. This wine nears the top of my budget for a single bottle of wine at 20 dollars a bottle (right now 25 is my self-imposed limit and that wine better knock my socks off). But it easily matches and then slightly surpasses any of the best bottles I’ve sampled since I started this blog (even the Clos Pegase Cabernet Sauvignon which is nearly 10 dollars more expensive than this). So my mind is made up. I give this a great QPR rating and if I did a point rating system based on a 1 out of 5 system this would easily get a 4.5 rating. Simply put this wine is truly a wonderful drinking experience. It has the sharp and acidic moments that Italian wine buffs love but it also has the layered flavors and complex depth that Napa Cab lovers swoon for. In all honesty this is my new Number 1 Wine as far as quality and price are concerned. I highly recommend this bottle. If you love red wine at all then you should try this now.

Mauro Sebaste