Birichino Malvasia Bianca 2012

Just in case it's bothering the multitude of people who read this blog (aka: my parents), I am well aware that it seems like I rarely ever touch red wine. The reason I tend to favor whites is mainly due to the fact that I live in San Antonio, Texas where it’s hot as hell for at least eight months out of the year. I really do love red wines, but after moving back home four years ago I started leaning more towards whites simply because it was too damn hot for me to enjoy the bold, spicy reds I typically bought. Once it gets cooler the color in my glass will change and I will regale you with many tales of red wine, but for tonight I’m sticking with white: Birichino Malvasia Bianca 2012.

The Birichino winery was founded by Alex Krause and John Locke in 2008, but only showed up on my radar about six months ago when Kye (the Quarry Whole Foods wine specialist) took an interest in them. His passion for wine has led him to develop a knack for tracking down little-known and rather unique wines from all over the world. He wound up bringing in several of Birichino’s wines (Malvasia, Vin Gris, Pinot Noir, Grenache and Muscat Canelli to be exact) and not a single one disappointed.

The lovely white wine I’m discussing tonight is from Monterey in California. It is 100% Malvasia Bianca (a varietal of ancient origin, most likely Greek) and aged for five months in stainless steel. A beautiful pale gold color with greenish tinges displaying aromas of tangerine, wet limestone and floral notes on the nose. The palate is light-bodied and racy with flavors of lemon peel, lime zest and white nectarine followed by hints of jasmine, fresh ginger and bright minerality. Crisp acidity cuts through the floral and fruit to deliver a clean finish. Really enjoyable for this summer weather we’re still having in San Antonio... in the middle of October.

The Birichino Malvasia Bianca is a truly lovely, complex wine and a rather hard to find varietal (in Texas at least). I've no doubt that will be enjoyable even after the weather decides to cool down. In case I've managed to peak your interest I would suggest hightailing it to either of the Whole Foods Markets in San Antonio.

… Except of course for puppies, puppies are better than everything ever.

NV G.H. Mumm & Cie Champagne Carte Classique Extra Dry

When my sisters and I were born my grandparents bought each of us a bottle of Champagne that we were supposed to save and open at our weddings. Unfortunately my parents weren't too wine savvy at that time and lacked a decent place to store any of these bottles so they were left in the kitchen pantry, which didn't end too well. I know of at least two times when my parents were forced to secretly replace a ruined bottle, before finally deciding it wasn't really worth the hassle. My oldest sister, Alicia, and I somehow still had intact bottles, and luckily my middle sister, Teresa, grew up to be more of a beer drinker so it didn't seem to bother her. I don’t remember if Alicia opened hers at her wedding (open bar and I was still drinking liquor back then… it’s a rather hazy memory altogether), but mine is the only one left.

Since I’m rather ambivalent about marriage, not to mention way too young (or too old according to some of my relatives), I've decided waiting for a wedding that might never happen is just plain silly. So I've decided that my bottle of G.H. Mumm Carte Classique Extra Dry is getting opened tonight after work. Chances are it’s not even good, but even a terrible bottle of wine can be good material for a post. Hurrah for late-night experiments that probably won't end well! 

Later that night...

I opened the would-be wedding Champagne after getting home tonight and was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't horribly spoiled. Had this been the original bottle my grandparents bought when I was born it probably would have been a much less pleasant experience. Of course you never know, maybe after being stored in a kitchen pantry for 27 years it would have had lovely notes of breakfast cereal, uncooked pasta and almost every cooking spice you can think of.

This bottle was perfect after a less than stellar week. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but it’s a really lovely deep golden color. On the nose it has baked peach and red apple with yeasty characteristics. Smooth and medium-bodied with flavors of baked pear, dried apricot and orange zest which are quickly taken over by hints of clove, toasted almond and honeysuckle. The honeysuckle notes lead flavors of rich honey that coats the mouth before being balanced out by crisp acidity.

I really didn't expect much from bottle, so actually enjoying it has been a pleasant surprise. Even so I doubt this family tradition will be carried on. I plan on starting a nice collection of birth year and age-worthy wines for my niece so she can be a classy drunk when she reaches the legal drinking age (20 years from now). I don’t think she’ll be missing out too much if I don’t include a NV champagne that’s been kept in rather questionable conditions for 20-plus years. 

Endless Crush Rosé 2013

Finally got my act back together (meaning I stopped being lazy and procrastinating) and am ready to introduce you to the wonders of rosé!

Earlier this year I had the good fortune to meet Kathleen Inman, the owner and winemaker of Inman Family Wines in Russian River Valley, while she was in San Antonio. Getting to meet and chat with friendly, passionate winemakers is one of the things I love most about my job. So combining those invariably interesting conversations with really great wines makes me a very happy little girl. I had heard that Inman’s natural and environmentally responsible winemaking style produced well-balanced, terroir-driven wines so it was awesome getting to taste that for myself. We sampled the Russian River Valley Chardonnay, Endless Crush Rosé, Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, Olivet Lane Vineyard Pinot Noir and Thorn Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir. They were excellent: the Chardonnay was crisp and bright, the Pinot Noirs were simply elegant with subtle, unique differences in each, but it was the Endless Crush Rosé that I fell head over heels for.

This exceptional wine is made predominately from organically grown Pinot Noir from their Olivet Grange Vineyard in Russian River Valley. An “intentional” rosé (rather than one made with the run-off juices from red wines, the saignée method), first made in ‘04 to celebrate her and her husband’s 20^th anniversary.  It is a delicious dry wine with red cherry, strawberry and floral notes on the nose, followed by refreshing strawberry, orange zest and watermelon flavors balanced by crisp acidity, hints of honeysuckle and spice that linger pleasantly on the finish.

Endless Crush is one of the most elegant and unique rosés I’ve ever tasted, I am thrilled that we finally have it in our wine set. It’s especially perfect for these ridiculously hot days we’ve had in Texas lately. Plus it has a pretty label! That way if you wind up not liking the wine (which is highly unlikely), you’ll have a pretty empty bottle… so no matter what you win! That is, assuming I’m not the only weirdo who keeps empty wine bottles to use as home decorations. Anyways! You should start walking at a very brisk pace to find this wine at Whole Foods Quarry in San Antonio.

Stand-in post

Last summer was when I was very much obsessed with rosés, that was pretty much all I drank. This was before they were cool too, so go me for being ahead of the curve for once (I know, I'm such a hipster). This summer I've been more interested in random, hard-to-find-in-San-Antonio varietals (like Roussanne and Grenache Blanc) and don't honestly think I've bought more than two or three bottles of rosé. So I find it slightly interesting that two of the hands down, most outstanding wines I've had in the past six months have both been rosés. 

I plan on doing posts on both wines in the very near future, this is really just a stand-in to make up for the fact that I've been too lazy to write anything of substance lately. Plus my partner-in-crime finally got one of these gorgeous wines in our store this week (Inman Family's Endless Crush Rosé, $23.99 at Whole Foods Quarry in San Antonio, TX!) so I'm incredibly excited about that. I promise something better post-wise in the very near future!

Kurt Darting Dürkheimer Spielberg Scheurebe Spätlese 2010

My parents are amazing and I know that I am damn lucky to have them. My father is awesome, I got both my dry sense of humor and cynicism (though he’s not too thrilled about that) from him and I am beyond grateful for both those traits. My mother is the kindest, most wonderful woman, who always wants to see the best in everyone. They balance each other out so perfectly and also drive each other crazy at times. I have never doubted that they love each other and my sisters and I (and all the dogs I might have kinda guilted them into getting) very much. If it weren't for them I might have never discovered how utterly fascinating and beautiful wine is.

For my 21^st birthday they had gotten me a bottle of Now and Zen Wasabi White (mainly because my mother loved the label... another habit I picked up from her), but forgot to bring it with them when they drove up to Dallas to see me, so my mother insisted on visiting several different liquor/wine stores in an attempt to find another bottle of it. We didn't find it and I honestly couldn't tell you what they wound up getting me instead to make up for it, but I remember being really amazed by how much they knew about wine, since it was something they'd only started getting into after I left home. What really sealed the deal though was a weekend visit I made probably a few months after that. They’d recently gotten really into New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and one of the last nights I was there we thought it'd be fun to do a blind-tasting of sorts with three different bottles of that varietal. Basically we put all three in paper bags then tasted each one and scored them somehow (the details are a bit fuzzy), not perfect, but still a lot of fun. The wines were Kim Crawford, Drylands (which I'm pretty sure was the winner overall) and a third I can’t recall. The details aren't really all that important... the point is that after that weekend I started to fall madly in love with wine all thanks to my parents.

Since then I've become way more of a wine geek than either of them and I’m sure that my slightly ridiculous passion for wine perplexes them at times, but they have been nothing but supportive anyways. Of course it pays off for them as well since I've introduced them to some rather awesome wines. Of those one of their favorites so far was Kurt Darting Dürkheimer Spielberg Scheurebe Spätlese from Pfalz, Germany.

I have Kye (my friend and fellow wine buyer at Whole Foods), to thank for introducing me to this wine (and for the picture above) and he has Terry Theise to thank for introducing him to Scheurebe. I’m really glad that he stumbled upon this beautiful wine after reading Theise’s book “Reading Between the Vines” and I’m really lucky that he was awesome enough to share that experience with me. Just to give a brief background on this little known varietal: Scheurebe (or Sämling 88) is a crossing of Riesling and an unknown grape (originally thought to be Sylvaner, but DNA analysis ruled that out in the ‘90s). Primarily grown in Austria and Germany it is highly aromatic and, like Riesling, the wines made from it can range from very sweet to bone dry.

The Darting Scheurebe was beyond gorgeous, I still list in as one of the top ten white wines I've ever had. After that first bottle I kept gushing about it to my parents and wound up buying another bottle of it to drink with them so they could experience it as well ($19.99 at Twin Liquors, though I don't believe they carry it anymore). Normally I’d do my best to describe Scheurebe, and I could go into detail about the pink grapefruit, orange zest and honeysuckle flavors but I just feel like Terry Theise does such a better job of explaining this varietal than I could ever do, so I’ll just leave you with his words:

“I don’t drink Riesling all the time, though I’d hardly mind doing so. Still, there are occasions when something more pagan is called for, and that’s when I summon my guiltiest of wine pleasures: Scheurebe.

"Scheurebe (shoy-ray-beh), often shortened to ‘Scheu,’ is Riesling just after it read the Kama Sutra. Put another way, Scheu is what Riesling would be if Riesling were a transvestite. If Riesling expresses all that is Noble and Good, Scheu offers all that is Dirty and Fun. It is Riesling’s evil, horny twin.”

-Terry Theise, "Reading Between the Vines"

Dashe Les Enfants Terribles Zinfandel 2011, Heart Arrow Ranch

I hate reality TV, it is awful and I think that it’s a shining example of how awful this world can be. I actually avoid my parents' place on certain nights because I know I’ll be subjected to that sort of crap if I’m there. The times that I can’t avoid it though I bring wine and Dashe Les Enfants Terribles Zinfandel is what I had this past Monday when I knew the Bachelorette was unavoidable and it was perfect for the occasion. I hadn’t had a Zinfandel in quite some time and this one made me regret that. It also made me rethink my meh-ness towards wine from California.

From the back label:

“Our Les Enfants Terribles (“the Wild Children”) series of wines are made from vineyards that we feel can make distinctive, terrior-driven wines. Fermented on native yeasts, with minimal oak influence and low levels of sulfites, these wines show beautiful fruit undisturbed by unnecessary processing. The essence of the vineyard shines through the resulting wine. This rebel has a cause – we hope you’ll like it.”

It was a really subtle wine for its type, just 13.5% which is pretty restrained for a Californian Zinfandel. I haven’t had many old world Zins, but this wine reminded me more of the few that I’ve had than any of the Californian ones. I’m not trying to bash California here, I do enjoy many wines from there (and all over North America), I just don’t think that they exhibit the same balance and finesse that old world wines do (I could really go off on a tangent there, but I’m going to stop myself because that’s not what this post is about).  There was a distinct earthiness along with the wild strawberry, baked raspberry and dried lavender notes. A hint of spice and round tannins led to a long-ish finish, overall it was really gorgeous.

Casa Silva Sauvignon Gris 2012

 Chilean wines will always have a special place in my heart simply because they remind me of my grandmother (Chilean)  who was a huge part of my life until her death almost 13 years ago. To me she was an extremely graceful woman, cultured and sophisticated, not a single hair out of place. She drilled my sisters and me on proper etiquette and manners until she was satisfied we were perfect (for the record I don't think I ever managed that perfection). It was a bit ridiculous and not very useful in the world outside of her home, but she was determined that her granddaughters not be ill-mannered hooligans. I’m probably making her sound like a ridiculous tyrant, but really she wasn’t, she just had standards for everyone, especially her family, and she made damn sure that we met them. To me she was elegance incarnate and I find most Chilean wines to be that same way.

The Silva family pioneered grape growing in the Colchagua Valley in 1892 and have the oldest cellar in the valley. The Sauvignon Gris is unique in that you almost never find that varietal anywhere since almost going extinct following the phylloxera epidemic. Not much has been planted since it was rediscovered in the 1980s in the Loire Valley. The Casa Silva Sauvignon Gris 2012 is medium-bodied and with crisp citrus flavors of lime zest, orange peel and pink grapefruit.  Fresh floral notes, spice and medium acidity lead into a rich, vibrant finish. It is elegant and complex, a wine I’m sure my grandmother would have loved and not just because her maiden name was Silva.

The Wolftrap White 2012

Last summer I became quite enamored with South African blends. I think it all started when I picked up a bottle of Goats Do Roam White from work mainly because I thought the name was very clever and it was under $10.  After that I started looking for other wines from South Africa and found that most of the white blends I tried were quite lovely, but the absolute best was Wolftrap White.

The 2012 is a blend of 60% Viognier, 21% Chenin Blanc, and 19% Grenache Blanc. Refreshing, medium-bodied bursting with floral notes of honeysuckle and orange blossom coupled with flavors of green apple, lime zest and melon. Crisp minerality and bright acidity are balanced by a hint creaminess which leads to a rich, lingering finish.

The Wolftrap Red is also worth trying, though it’s a bit too heavy for me during hot weather. It’s mostly Syrah and Mouvedre with a tiny amount of Viognier (2%) added to soften the wine a bit. I’m Still hoping to track down their Rosé one of these days, but so far no luck with that.